There is no right or wrong way to create a robot.  They can come in all kinds of shapes, colors, and sizes…  

The possibilities are as endless as your child’s imagination. 

Which is why making an oversized cardboard box robot is a fun recycled craft for kids of all ages to do at home or with friends at camp.  

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Making cardboard robots is not only fun, it’s also a great way to recycle those packing boxes.

Our church VBS made these big box robots to use as robot decorations for Fun Maker Factory.  The robots were super creative and so much fun to look at.  

Once they are finished they are fun for pretend play, too.  Your child will also love this DIY Cardboard Box Castle.

Cardboard Box Robot

If you’re making oversized robots, you will want plenty of materials for the kids to experiment with and use in their crafting.

The good news is most of the items you need can be found in the recyclables or at the dollar store.  

I suggest having the following items:  

• Cardboard Boxes of Various Sizes
• Paper or Plastic Cups
• Empty Egg Cartons
• Cardboard Tubes
• Paper Plates and/or Bowls
• Dryer Ventilation Hose
• Aluminum Foil
• Plastic Bottle Caps
• Pipe Cleaners (chenille craft sticks)
• Duct Tape
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors
• Silver Spray Paint
• Acrylic Paints/Brushes

How to Make a Robot out of Cardboard Boxes

Start by stacking 2-3 boxes to form the body of your robot.

Experiment with how you stack them until you find a shape you like.  

You might choose to put the largest box on the bottom (like the robot below). 

Or you might use two smaller boxes on the bottom to form legs.

Move the boxes around until you are happy with how it looks.  Then use your hot glue gun to secure them together.

To give your robot a metallic look, spray the boxes with silver spray paint.

Next, add details to the robot.

Buttons are always a fun accessory for this cardboard box robot craft. 

Plastic lids make great buttons.  Or, try adding the bottom section of an empty egg carton to form rows of buttons, like the robot in the picture below.

Ventilation hose can create realistic looking robot arms and legs. 

Cut pieces to the desired length to attach to your box robots.  Use duct tape to secure them to the robot to create wiggly  arms and legs. 

Paper plates and bowls, cardboard tubes, and other small boxes can also be used to add fun details to your robots.

Once you have all the pieces glued together, you can use acrylic paint to give your robots a touch of color.  Colored duct tape is also a fun way to add details.

Making a robot out of boxes is lots of fun for kids.  

Each one turns out so differently.  You may just find that you just can’t stop with just one robot.

Once the crafting is finished, this large robot craft can be used for hours of pretend play.

Robots out of cardboard boxes also make fun decorations for a robot party.  

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More Posts You’ll Like:

• How to Make a Cardboard Helmet for Pretend Play
• Fun and Foamy Elephant Toothpaste Experiment 
• 40+ Crafts and Activities for Shark Week 

Originally published May 27, 2018. 

The post Create Big-Time Fun with Cardboard Box Robots first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

That meant I had to figure out how to make a cardboard helmet for a costume.

In case any of you are still working on Halloween costume pieces (no judging here, I just started working on his latest costume this week), I thought I’d share how I made the cardboard helmet.

Not only is it perfect for a costume, it could be a fun kids craft for tweens, as well.

This simple helmet craft would go perfectly with your very own cardboard castle playhouse.

How to Make a Cardboard Helmet

I  used cereal boxes to make the majority of his helmet.  They are thinner, which makes them easy to cut and more comfortable to wear.

To start with, you will need to cut a 2 inch thick strip of cardboard that fits around your child’s head.  I wound up having to connect two pieces of cardboard together with duct tape to make it long enough.

Use tape to secure your cardboard strip in a circle that fits snugly around your child’s head.

Then cut two more strips of cardboard, taping them inside the circle and crossing in the middle (as seen in the picture below).

Be sure these two strips sit high enough that your child’s head can still fit inside the helmet.

 Tip:  A roll of paper towels is perfect for holding your cardboard helmet while you work.

You will notice one other addition in my picture, the start of Chop-Chop’s helmet decoration — a triangular nose guard.

At this point you can add in the start of a nose guard.  You could also add in side pieces to the helmet, like ear guards. It all depends on how you want your finished product to look.

The next step is to fill in the top of your helmet.

Cut four triangular pieces to fill in the spaces left from the criss-crossing cardboard strips you have at the top.

To make them fit better, make a small cut along the triangle’s bottom to allow you to overlap the bottom a bit, making the triangles rounder at the bottom.   This helps them curve more with the helmet.

Use plenty of tape, cutting off any pieces of cardboard that stick out, until you are happy with the result.  It doesn’t have to be perfect smooth, as that will be covered in a bit.

You could paint your homemade helmet, but duct tape helps make it look more finished.  Plus, it will make it more durable and a little more water resistant.

Start by covering the top of the helmet with strips of tape.

Then use long strips to go around the circumference of your duct tape helmet.

You can leave your helmet as is, or you can make it a little fancier.

We put a large crest on top of the cardboard helmet.  For this I used a slightly thicker cardboard, hot gluing two pieces together to make it even thicker.

If you choose to add a crest, you will want to cut the bottom of the crest so it curves inward, allowing it to fit snugly against the main portion of the helmet.

You can paint the crest or use more duct tape to give it color.  My son decided to color his with crayons.

Use hot glue to secure the crest to the helmet.

You can add other decorative pieces in the same manner.

We decided to make a larger nose guard out of thicker cardboard to add to our helmet.

That’s all there is to it when it comes to how to make a cardboard helmet for a costume.

A homemade cardboard helmet will help transform any young boy (or girl) into their favorite character.  It’s the perfect addition to dress up clothes for pretend play.

You’ll also enjoy these posts:

• Coat of Arms Craft — Perfect for adding a shield to your dress up area!
• Shark Party Games
• Straw Weaving Bracelet — tween craft

Edited post.  This post was originally published October 27, 2014. 

The post How to Make a Cardboard Helmet for a Costume first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Because those memories are so precious to me, I could not wait to give my children the magic of their own cardboard castle playhouse.   This is by far our favorite recycled craft ever, and has had several years of use so far.

When we started our medieval castle unit this school year, I just knew we had to make our very own castle.  Thankfully I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to cardboard boxes, and we still had the huge furniture box my husband’s armoire came in years ago.  Even before kids I KNEW that box had playhouse potential!

*Furniture and appliance boxes work great for making playhouses.  If you don’t have a large box handy try calling an appliance or hardware store to see if they have empty boxes from the appliance they have on display.*

DIY Cardboard Castle Playhouse

During our medieval castle unit we read about different castle structures that were built for defensive purposes.  When we built our castle playhouse we tried to incorporate as many of those features as we could.

The first item the kids decided to add to their cardboard castle was a drawbridge.  We used a marker to outline the area to cut.  Then I used my bread knife to carefully cut out the drawbridge.  (Using a bread knife in a sawing motion is much easier than trying to cut a large amount of cardboard with scissors.)

We used a nail to poke a small hole towards the top of the drawbridge door on one side.  A long piece of yarn was threaded through the hole with a large bead tied to each end.  This makes a convenient way for the kids to pull up the draw bridge once they are inside.

Next they asked for loophole windows in the castle.  The narrow loopholes made it hard for attackers to shoot into the castle, while allowing the archers inside to easily shoot out.  The kids helped measure and draw three windows on each of the castle’s sides.  Then I carefully cut out each piece.

One of the most distinctive features seen on many medieval castles is at the top.  The battlements of the castle allowed guards to take cover during an attack, while easily moving to the open spots to shoot.  We used a ruler to measure the space between the battlements of our castle and tried to make them as even as possible.

Once all the cutting was complete, we used a can of spray paint to give the castle a mottled appearance to make it look a bit more like stone.

This cardboard castle is great for pretend play.  Add some blankets, pillows, and books and the castle makes a cozy reading spot, too.

For more castle activities:

• Practice spelling words with kinetic sand castles.
• Design your own coat of arms to hang in the cardboard castle.

Do your kids love to build?  Get more building fun with our Up! ebook.  

The post Build Your Own Cardboard Castle Playhouse first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

It’s no wonder that duct tape crafts have become popular in the world of kids crafts.

This simple duct tape picture frame is perfect for displaying your child’s latest artwork.

See the pictures in the frames above?

Those pictures are the result of  painting with toy trucks.   We decided this simple duct tape craft was the perfect finishing touch to the brightly colored artwork.

Duct Tape Picture Frames

Materials Needed:

• Pieces of cardboard
• Duct tape in a variety of colors
• Stickers
• Ruler
• Permanent markers

Empty cereal boxes work great for this duct tape craft.  The cardboard is thin and easy for kids to cut on their own.

Use your ruler to carefully draw square and rectangular picture frame shapes on the cardboard and cut them out.   When it comes to cutting out the center, you may want to help your child get started.   (We don’t want any little fingers poked by scissor points!)

It’s okay if the cuts are perfectly straight.  The tape will cover many of the flaws, and your child will be working on important scissors skills.

Cover the cardboard with your choice of duct tape.

If you have duct tape with some cute patterns, you may want to stop there.  If you only have solid color tape, your child may want to decorate the frame a bit with stickers.

Since we only had solid colored duct tape on hand, we decided to decorate the frames a bit using stickers and permanent markers.

Stickers are a fun way for kids to work on fine motor skills while crafting!

Your child will be proud of his/her new picture frame made with duct tape.

These frames are pieces of art themselves.

Plus, kids love displaying their artwork in their very own homemade picture frames.

You may also like:

• Duct Tape Water Bottle Holder
• Organizing School Supplies with Duct Tape
• Mud Painting
• Box Robot Craft 
• Awesome Elephant Toothpaste Science Experiment

The post Duct Tape Picture Frame first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

As they climbed inside giggling and popping their heads over the side, an idea formed in my mind.

The box made the perfect cardboard box playhouse.   The kids used it for lots of fun Valentine’s Day pretend play.

Looking for more ways to recycled those boxes?  Check out these 25+ Recycled Crafts for Kids.

Cardboard Box Playhouse

To make the sweet shop large enough for both of my sweeties (don’t want any fighting, after all!), I used another large box I had stored in the basement to help form our walls.

Then I covered the boxes with some of the brown packing paper that had filled up the over-sized box.   Once that was finished, it was time to decorate.

I drew curvy lines in an X on some paper plates.  I marked every other space space for the kids to color to create large mint candies to hang.

Then I showed them how to fold paper in half to cut out hearts.  We used some old shiny gift bags for some of our hearts.  For the preschooler it was easier for me to draw the half heart on the paper for him to then cut out.

A smaller box was turned into a sign for our pretend candy shop.

They had fun using the hot glue gun (with my constant supervision) to glue their decorations to the shop.

Finally, I got out some old Christmas tree lights that I almost donated, and draped them across the shop’s top.

In no time at all the toy cash register was inside, along with all the cookies and cupcakes they could find in their play kitchen.

We bent red and white pipe cleaners into small candy canes to sell, and then I had one more treat for them!

A jar full of pom-pom gumballs!

Dishing out pom-pom gumballs with the tongs is not only fun, it’s great practice for those fine motor skills!

It was time to open shop!

Large cardboard boxes are so much fun to turn into cardboard box playhouses.

This pretend candy shop is perfect for Valentine’s Day inspired pretend play.

You may also like:

• Valentine’s Day Crafts & Activities
• How to Create a Cardboard Castle
• Fairy Soup Pretend Play

The post Cardboard Box Play: Valentine’s Sweet Shop! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

When it comes to crafting with kids, sometimes the recyclables box can be your best friend.  Over the years we’ve had lots of fun crafting with recyclables.

I’m excited to be a part of a group of talented bloggers working on a collaborative series all about creating with recyclables.  Each month we’ll be focusing on a different material, starting with cardboard boxes in January.

I think cardboard boxes are one of my favorite materials to use when it comes to crafting.  They are just so versatile!

One of my son’s favorite crafts using a cardboard box was the ice cream truck he created for the letter I.

The stuffed dolphin in the picture drives the truck around at least twice a week.  I think its been used as a makeshift ambulance as well.  When we created the truck, I never knew it would be such a hit!

When the kids were younger and we needed a way to keep the kids in their play area in the basement, I used some large cardboard boxes to make interactive walls for them.

They don’t use the spinning backpack wheel or try to do the mazes anymore, but are walls are still there!  Much cheaper than building real walls, and easy to change/take down when needed.

But my favorite thing to do with a cardboard box is just to hand it over to the kids!

With a little tape, some markers or crayons, and a bunch of creativity, you just never know what they will come up with!  

The post Cardboard Box Crafts with Project Recycle & Create first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.