Friday, May 4, 2012

Crafty Friday: The Box House

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get this posted. I woke up this morning with a cold, and didn't feel like doing much of anything today, but I finally made myself get out of bed and get to work. Hopefully this craft will be worth the wait.

To be honest, I'd been telling my children that we were going to build a box house for months now, and I had them gathering boxes all that time. What it amounted to was a big box trash pile in our game room for that time. We had so many boxes and it looked so bad that I started throwing things away thinking we would never get to this project. I'm glad we didn't give up on it, though because I love what it has become.

Here's what you need:

-a ton of boxes, all difefrent shapes and sizes
-a hot glue gun
-packing tape
-scissors
-markers

Extra embellishments we used:
-straws
-moss
-pipe cleaners
-construction paper
-fabric/felt
-string
-golf tees
-styrofoam balls
-old jewelry

We started by cutting out windows and doors in some of our boxes, and drawing windows and doors on other ones.

Then we did a "dry fit" so to speak, stacking and arranging boxes. You need to have a few bigger boxes at the bottom to give the structure a sturdy foundation. We used a combination of packing tape and hot glue to attach the pieces together.

Then, it was an "arrange as you" go format to figure out the layout as we built up, making sure that we added any text, or drawings onto the boxes before we glued them to the structure. Finally, we added all kinds of embellishments including trees made out of styrofoam balls, golf tees, and moss, balconies out of cardboard, a clothes line in the alley, a mail box, a trash can, stairs, window boxes pieces of jewelry used as signs or garden stones, and a flag pole and lamp post out of straws. 








[Wasn't it sweet that my daughter put my business at the top of the structure. It was all her idea...I promise!]
We had more fun figuring out all of the tiny details, and that's the other reason I'm posting this so late. As I'm typing this, Audrie is still working on embellishments. I don't know if we are ever going to quit. Who knows, by the time this baby's born, our whole game room might consist of a box world with it's own government, indoor plumbing, electricity. That reminds me...where did I pack the Christmas lights?

Happy crafting!

xo

nessa dee

14 comments:

  1. This was one of my favorite things from your AT house tour :) I've a few of these box houses pinned on Pinterest. I think I may need to add making one to our list of summer activities!

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  2. Found this via Pinterest and I immediately added it to our list of summer projects! It's so cool!

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  3. woooow... this is so cool! It's a great job :)

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  4. As if my love for towering imaginary cities wasn't bad enough, now my boys and I will definitely have to make our own. I love the brick facade on the school and the tiny clothesline! Thanks for sharing!~Merrilee

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  5. This is so cool!!! I can't wait til my daughter is old enough to work on projects like this with me!

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  6. Love this! We just featured your post on our Facebook.

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  7. This is Great! Each little home has so much character. I can actually imagine a village of little people happily going about their day. I really love the colors, and especially love your yellow striped wall!

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  8. I've just found this image via Pinterest and I'm blown away! I will definitely be doing this with my kids. My son has made smaller versions of similar things before but the scale and detail of this is fabulous. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. I just saw this on pinterest. How did I miss this?? It is amazing and sooooo cute! I love it!

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  10. I just saw this on Pinterest and I'm dumbfounded! It's so amazing. Love the details, the aesthetics, and love how lived-in it looks - with the clothes line et al. Yes, I do think it's so sweet and doting of your daughter to place your business at the top....
    My daughter is just 6 and yet I can't wait to try with her. We've been hoarding cardboard boxes, too! :-)

    following your blog now.... :-)
    Cheers from India!

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  11. HI Nessa
    I just came across your house tour on apt. therapy. I loved the cardboard city you made with your kids. Awesome project. I had to hunt it down!!

    I have a question for you mom artist to mom artist. How do you find the time? At the beginning of the year I quite my job as
    a graphic designer to stay at home while expecting our third, and final (LOL), child. SHe is now 5mo old. I also have a tenacious two year old, and dancing diva five year old. When do you and how do you find the time? I can
    barely do meals, dishes, dirty clothes, dirty butts, and story time.
    I would love input from any of you other creatives out there!!

    Thanks

    D

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  12. So cute! I love your daughter's tee. "Nerdy Birdie". Super cute.

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  13. Such a cute idea! and I love your daughter's tee!

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  14. I did this with empty clean kitty litter boxes. The boxes the litter came in. Cut holes in for passageways and towers etc. Made it sturdy with none other than duct tape. They loved it. Then after a while...to the garbage. Saved $149.00.

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I love hearing from you all, so comment away! I will do my best to respond, but if I haven't, it's probably because I'm teaching my kids, or am knee deep in paint, or have lost my mind.