4 Large Cardboard Box Activities

My absolute favorite crafting material is cardboard. The possibilities of a cardboard box are endless!

Between going through a phase where we had two kids in diapers, and then also having things delivered during quarantine…we have A LOT of cardboard boxes. I’m talking a mountain of them in our basement storage room. My whole family also knows about my cardboard obsession so they will also send large boxes my way when they receive packages.

Here are a few of my favorite cardboard box activities and creations that we have made:

Cardboard Campout

We bought a camper last year and my son is so excited to go camping. It is not warm enough yet to go outdoor camping so we brought camping indoors with our cardboard tent. We filled the “tent” with blankets and pillows. It made a cozy reading place and also a fun place for imaginative play. The Christma lights added an extra touch of dreaminess.

We also used our Learning Resources Camp Out set to pretend to make hot dogs and s’mores over the fire.

What you will need to make a tent: Cardboard box, Christmas lights, box cutter

Directions:

1. Fold large, flat section of box in half

2. Use box cutter to cut rows of holes in the box

3. Loop lights in and out through the holes

Gingerbread House

This little gingerbread house was a total hit with my boys. Although, I don’t know what it is about things with doors that cause so many fights with kids (at least with my kids). One boy always wants it open and one wants it closed and both want to be in control. Anyways, I guess it’s a great way to work on taking turns.

Note: For this project I used duct tape but since then I have discovered that I actually prefer to use hot glue for cardboard projects. I have found the projects last longer and look prettier when a hot glue gun is used.

What you will need: 2 large cardboard boxes, duct tape, paper plates, tissue paper, hot glue gun, styrofoam and craft paper (I used the styrofoam and craft paper to make the roof, but you could also use another cardboard box instead. I accidentally cut up the large box that I had originally planned to use for the roof so I had to make mine out of styrofoam and craft paper)

Directions:

1. Tape together two large boxes for the main part of the house

2. Tape together two large pieces of styrofoam and secure them to the top of the house using duct tape

3. Cover styrofoam with craft paper

4. For the white roof decorations, cut out paper plates and use a hot glue gun to attach them to the roof.

5. For the “gumballs”, make balls out of tissue paper and hot glue them to the roof

5. For a little extra magic, tape Christmas lights to the inside of the gingerbread house roof.

Inspired by: innerchildfun

Ice Fishing Cabin

For this fun cabin, I used the same cardboard boxes as the gingerbread house. By the time I decided to change the gingerbread house into a fishing cabin (a couple months later), the duct tape was all peeling off. So I decided to completely take the duct tape off and hot glued the boxes together instead. In the future, I will definitely be using hot glue for my large cardboard projects instead of duct tape.

To transform this from a gingerbread house to a fishing cabin I removed the roof of the gingerbread house. In its place, I hot glued one skinny piece of cardboard to the top of the “cabin”, creating a dome shape, and then covered it was a large sheet of plush, white felt. Then I rolled up pieces of craft paper and hot glued them all down the front of the cabin (looking back, it would have been easier to have used paper towel rolls).

To make the ice fishing spot, I cut a hole in a large piece of styrofoam. Then, I placed blue paper under the hole and threw in some of my sons’ play fish. He loved fishing at his fishing cabin.