Wordless Wednesday: Tickets please!

So you've seen our bus... but have you seen our bus stop yet? Here it is:

Junior J helped me make the sign, and helped me with the tickets (he LOVES giving out tickets!). I just cut out two slots for the coin box, one for ticket dispensing, and the other to put "coins" in.

I thought the coin box would be a nice addition (since "the money on the bus goes cling cling cling" right?). However, all his brother wanted to do was to dig out the coins!

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Monday Made: The wheels on the bus

Lil J loves his vehicles. In particular, he is obsessed with the song "The wheels on the bus", and has verses of the song down pat. He also loves the colour yellow. So when his birthday drew near, we decided that we would make him a yellow bus out of cardboard for his birthday present. 

Junior J wanted to paint the bus yellow, but the yellow poster paint didn't show up very well when applied directly on the box. I contemplated just buying yellow paper, and wrapping the whole box (which seemed like the most effective way to go about it), but the boy had his heart set on painting the bus for his lil brother, so we ended up wrapping the box up with masking tape and painting on that instead. 

Lengths of masking tape and oodles of yellow paint later, we added another smaller box in front, and cut the grilles and lights out of cardboard and wrapped them in aluminum foil: 

The hubs helped with all the cutting for the windows (we had two with flaps so they could open and close), and reinforced the insides with more cardboard so that the whole thing didn't collapse. Then I used black insulating tape and duct tape for the window borders (and to "seal" the edges of the windows), and blue disposable plates secured with Makedo clips for the wheels (we couldn't find any black plates!).

For the dashboard inside, I drew in a fuel gauge and tachometer (I was clueless about all the meters, so I actually had to google the components of the dashboard!)...

... as well as a speedometer and odometer. The needles were just secured using craft brads from Daiso.

The steering wheel was just a disposable plate, secured again with a Makedo clip. I admit, I was contemplating adding a gear stick, but trying to figure out the mechanics of using cardboard to make one escaped me, and I thought the kids would probably ruin that quite quickly!

For the back of the bus, we just added rear lights and I couldn't resist a little license plate. And I added wipers (so Lil J could do his "wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish" thing):

And of course, before you own a vehicle, you had better bring it for a test drive. So how did it fare?

Lil J loved it. He'd sit inside and fiddle with the dashboard, and scoot along his bottom dragging the bus along with him (its too heavy for him to lift from the sides), and pretend to beep the horn (I tried looking for a squeaky toy for the horn, but couldn't find anything suitable!). The kids all squished inside it during his birthday party. There was always one kid or another driving this about. 

It was a tight squeeze for three, and quite cramped if you have two kids sitting inside, but it's just nice for two kids to stand inside. All in all, I think the bus passes the little boy's vehicle inspection!

PS: I think we have this strange obsession with working with cardboard boxes. Click on the links to view our cardboard play kitchen and fridge!

Monday Made: Leaf heart

We had loads of these leaves lying about the house, thanks to Junior J's squirrelly habit of always picking up something on our walks and bringing them back home. Some went into the leaf book. However, with autumn and its sea of fluttery golden pavements, they were starting to pile up, and we were in danger of creating some leaf litter communities.

So while we were stuck home over the weekend, I cut out a heart out of cardboard packaging, and Junior J and I pasted them down using oodles of PVA glue. And dried it wedged under the laptop. I love the warm colours and all those textures:

And speaking of textures, I've been wanting to photograph these pumpkins for awhile. The variety of pumpkins here is amazing, and these are sold as an assorted bunch in a basket for 3 bucks!

I especially like this one, for all its strangeness, and have yet to identify it. Anyone knows?

Now I have to think of what to do with all those extra leaves that we still have... any suggestions?

Thinking Thursdays: Kitchen FAQs (and tap tutorial)

Hello!  I've been getting some questions regarding our cardboard kitchen, so I've decided to answer them in a blog post:

:: Where did you get all those boxes?  
We've purchased quite a few pieces of furniture from Ikea, and are constantly buying books from Amazon, so we saved all those boxes.  If you're in Singapore, you can also talk to the folks at the supermarkets like NTUC and request for boxes.

:: Where did you get those pots and pans?  
Those are from a children's cookware playset, produced by Goki, an affordable German toy brand. Do note that these were pretty small, so Junior J didn't fit much into those pots! 

:: I've had people worrying that their kids would wreck the kitchen since its made of cardboard. For our version, the hubby had ensured everything was reinforced with more cardboard (like the shelves, as well as with cross-bracing for the counter itself). Thus far, our rather violent 11 month old has been hitting it and climbing on it, and the counter still is intact.  Cardboard is pretty strong!  (But I've kept him away from the tap though!)

:: Speaking of the tap that can turn, I've had requests to explain how it was made, so I've done up a short tutorial here.  All you need are toilet rolls, a scissors, and tape (we used kraft paper tape):

Hope this helps!  And before I go, here's some more cardboard-y inspiration for you:

:: Sarah has compiled a couple of useful links to making cardboard crafts.

:: Here's a great compilation of some cardboard constructions you could try, including a petrol pump and a castle!

:: I'm thinking of making this toy slot box for Baby J to play with.

Have fun creating with cardboard!

PS: We've chosen a winner for our book giveaway!  Hop over here to view the results!

Wordless Wednesdays: Fun for free

(well almost, you just need to buy tape!) Some time ago, a mum shared on a FB learning page about how you could build a marble drop from milk cartons. One rainy fall day, we made this and had fun!

PS: Thank you for all your kind comments about our cardboard kitchen. I've received some queries, & will try to answer them tomorrow!

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Monday Made: Our cardboard kitchen

Hello! How was your weekend?  Ours was great.  We had good weather for once, so we headed out to the zoo and found the most amazing playground inside (perhaps that warrants a post next time).  And we also managed to finish doing up Junior J's kitchen:

Want a tour?  The kitchen was made entirely of cardboard (most of it was assembled by the hubby, while I helped with the little details), and has a stove...

... and a place to store pots and pans...

... as well as utensils:

There's also an oven where you can bake stuff in:

And some pantry shelves:

Then when you're done cooking up a storm, you'll need to wash up.  No problem since there's a sink with a tap that even turns:

The sink was an idea from a JC classmate of mine, you just need to cut a hole in the cardboard
and slot the container in!  I made the tap using toilet paper rolls and kraft paper tape.

... and of course, stuff to wash up with.

Then when you're done washing, there's a place to dry them all!

And to give the whole place a nice cosy feel, we've added postcards of fresh produce on the walls:

Speaking of cardboard, have you watched the video on Caine's Arcade yet? This arcade, built by 9 year old Caine, has sparked the imagination of kids and parents around the world.  In fact, in Singapore, Sarah of "The Playful Parents" is hosting a Cardboard Challenge on the 5th of Oct (details here), and you can get more cardboard ideas from her blog!

I've been inspired, and Junior J and I hope to make more creations out of cardboard (click here to view our previous cardboard creations, like our cardboard fridge!)... how about you?

PS: We have an exciting series of posts coming up tomorrow on the blog, so stay tuned!

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Monday Made: Venice play scene

Welcome to Venice!  One of the most famous landmarks you cannot miss would be the Piazza San Marco, which is graced by the Basilica di San Marco (Saint Mark's Basilica), and its bell tower, or campanile:

Our basilica is drawn on cardboard, and painted by the boy, and is supported by a milk carton.
The campanile is made out of another milk carton, which the boy insisted must be painted purple and green.

And of course, Venice is characterized by its many canals... and what is that creature in a distance?

Canals were made from construction paper, which the boy painted and drew on.

Oh, its Nessie from Scotland!  And she has her very own canal to swim in.  There are many houses by the canals for the Venetians to stay in:

We are still decorating the houses, which are made out of milk cartons and wrapped in brown packing paper.

Ah, and of course, if you can't swim like Nessie, you would need a gondola to get around in:

[We made these gondolas out of the kitchen paper towel rolls.  All you need to do would be to cut the roll to open it up at the top, then snip off the two bottom corners:

Then fold over the two ends to meet like this and glue the ends down (you can use clothes pegs to hold them during the drying process):

You could also use the snipped off parts to make the fero (the tail part) which we did, but ours had 3 of the usual 6 "teeth".  Oh, and a disclaimer, our gondolas were not flat-bottomed, and kept toppling.  Perhaps it was because they weren't made from the customary 8 types of wood!]

These gondolas are supposed to be black, but then if a dinosaur wants a blue one with a pink interior, you'd better not argue with him!

(The boy got very excited when we started on our Venice project, and promptly moved his dinosaurs in from the dino world.  That's probably why there are no pigeons in our Piazza San Marco!)

Monday Made: The Natural History Museum

Guten Tag!  For the past week or so, big boy and I have been working on this box (or rather, its half of a huge box that contained our sofa bed), and transforming it into a natural history museum.  We made a curtain for the entrance using strips of crepe paper:

And got messy with paints to make a welcome mat:

I used scotch-tape to form the letters, and Junior J got to paint all over the mat.  Then he was given a wet wipe to wipe away the paint to reveal the letters!

Then we got busy tiling the floor (since many of the museums we've visited have lovely mosaic tiled floors):

I cut out varying shapes from contact paper, and got him to stick down different coloured pieces of construction paper, while I cooked lunch.

It took 4 days for us to finish the floor!  He had great fun finding different
shapes, and experimenting with folding the papers to see what other shapes
he would get.

Now the whole floor is tiled, and also protected from spills thanks to the contact paper. :)

We then made a "raining rainbow" (that's what he calls it) for the back wall of the museum:

We just painted clouds (first the primary colours, then mixing to form the secondary colours), and dripped paint down from the clouds (the paint must be really watery for this).  He got really excited to see all the paint dripping down!

And to house some exhibits, we made shelves for the walls:

The shelves are made from cereal/rice boxes, and painted by the boy.

This one was our attempt at doing marble art.

And finally, we made and decorated a sign for the museum:

I held his hand to write the words (he insisted it had to be based in Germany!)
and left him to decorate the sign.

And there you have it, our very own Natural History Museum, all ready for visitors!  Hurry down to visit today, entrance is free for a limited period of time!