My son loves cars. No, let me rephrase that, he is obsessed with cars. Toy cars litter our living room at all times, the sheets on his bed all have cars, and every shirt he owns has a vehicle on it. (We even did a full year of ABC’s with vehicles for preschool.)
The other day he plopped his little beanie stuffed elephant into a half empty box of tissues and started zooming it around. That’s when this fun tissue box craft idea formed — stuffed animal vehicles.
Cardboard box crafts are always popular with kids. Allergy season means plenty of empty tissue boxes that are perfect for this preschooler vehicle craft.
Tissue Box Craft: Stuffed Animal Vehicles
Materials Needed:
- Empty Tissue Box
- Craft Glue
- Paintbrush
- Construction Paper
You might also want: clear tape, cardboard tubes, glitter, paint, markers, pipe cleaners, pom-poms…. It all depends on what kind of vehicle your child wants to craft and how involved you want to get.
Start off by asking your child what kind of vehicle they want to make. It’s a great way to let them start getting that creativity flowing.
Once they have some ideas, cut the construction paper of their choice so you have pieces that will fit all 4 sides of the box. Have your toddler/preschooler use the paintbrush to cover the sides of the tissue box with glue. Then glue on the colored paper.
Once the sides are covered, cut another piece to cover the top, cutting a hole out to match the one on the tissue box. Have your child glue it on. We used a bit of clear tape around the hole area to keep the paper from tearing.
My daughter wanted to make a carrot car for her little green bunny to drive. We used a cardboard tube to be the green part at the end of the carrot. She used a marker to color it green and had fun cutting slits in one end of it to make it fan out. Then we taped it to one end of the tissue box car.
A set of black paper wheels made bunny’s race car complete.
My son wanted a backhoe (digger) for his elephant.
We cut one tube in half to become the truck’s front shovel. A strip of cardboard became the boom for the backhoe’s digger, and we used another piece of cardboard tube for the back scoop. Tape held it all together.
4 black construction paper wheels were added and elephant was ready to go for a ride.
This tissue box craft was a big hit with both my preschoolers. Don’t you just love crafts that can be played with afterwards? They spent hours engaged in pretend play as their stuffed animals zoomed around the kitchen floor.
You may also like:
- How to Make a Pretend Play Helmet from a Cardboard Box
- Recycled Crafts Perfect for Earth Day
- Fun Ways to Play and Learn with Toy Cars
JDaniel4's Mom says
What a wonderful ride for the animals! I love this idea!
admin says
Sometimes you just have to watch kids play to get ideas… I loved how certain they both were of what type of vehicle their individual animals would need.
Lisa @ Two Bears Farm says
Love the backhoe! These turned out so cute 🙂
admin says
Thanks – that was my son’s idea all the way! 🙂
Michael Schmid (@adaddyblog) says
Those are so cute and creative. I particularly like the backhoe. Adorable!
admin says
Thank you! That was definitely my son’s idea there! 🙂
Michael Schmid (@adaddyblog) says
Well, kudos to him! 🙂 Quick tip, and feel free to delete this after you read it: you may wish to change your “Display name publicly as” from admin to something more personal and friendly sounding, e.g. One Mommy? None of my business, and the advice is worth just what you paid for it. Should you wish to change it, just go to your admin profile settings and select something else. I use Michael Schmid, but if you put One Mommy in as your first and last name or as your nickname, I’m sure either would give you the option of using it instead of admin at the top of your posts, and on comments you leave.
admin says
Thank you so much! You know, I had been wanting to change that but was under the impression it couldn’t be changed. 🙂 Learn something new every day!
Thanks again!
amorenlinea says
When I initially commented I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and
from now on every time a comment is added I recieve 4 emails with the same comment.
There has to be a means you can remove me from that service?
Thank you!
admin says
Oh, I have done that before on other blogs! (a few times now…) I KNOW how annoying that can get. I’m not sure right now how to fix that, but I will definitely look into it for you!
Sonya says
Oh, my goodness, those are so cute!!!
OneMommy says
Thank you! They have played with them a lot this week!
Donna says
These are way too cute! Now I wish I had a small child around. I bet your children had so much fun making these.
OneMommy says
They did have fun – and they have played with them every day so far!
Carrie says
Love the cars!! How fun. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!! I hope you are having a fabulous week!
OneMommy says
Thanks! They still play with them – Beanie Babies have to get around somehow I guess!
Hafsa says
So brilliant that we had to feature you on 30 Incredible Tissue Box Crafts
http://hafsacreates.com/2013/02/07/30-tissue-box-crafts/ – Thanks!
JDaniel4's Mom says
I just stopped by to Stumble this post. You know how much a like it.
OneMommy says
Thanks for the stumble!
Emma @ P is for Preschooler says
I love these! Bunny has some stylish wheels! 🙂