Make Your Own: Kid's Box Cars

I'm a little late, but Happy New Year! Better late than never, right?

This year, in addition to food ideas, I'm going to begin including some craft ideas as friends continue to ask me to share some of my arts and crafts projects.

I am a craft JUNKIE! And now that Pinterest exists, my addiction has become a bit chronic. I absolutely love being able to make home-made decor and projects. My favorite excuses to make projects are usually centered around:

holidays,

birthdays, and

kid's fun and educational.

This weekend, we were gearing up for our Friday night movie night. We usually rent a kid-friendly movie, pop some home-made popcorn (link for a super easy recipe), and cuddle up in our pjs. But I had this lingering itch to make use of some old diaper boxes I had been saving in our garage. Just seems like such a waste to throw them away every month. So I thought, we could turn those boxes into box cars and have our very own little drive-in movie!

All you need are:

1. big cardboard boxes (old diaper boxes, Christmas gift boxes, almost anything bulk from Costco will do)
2. wrapping paper or child friendly-paint/spray paint
3. painters tape or Duct tape
4. glue stick or Elmer's glue
5. construction paper or black paper plates
6. embellishments of your choice

BEFORE

Honestly, this is so simple. Be creative as you'd like.

First, cover your box. You can simply wrap it in left over wrapping paper or if you are going to paint it, prime your box with white paint. Once dry, paint your color of choice. Daniel chose brown for his and pink for his baby sister. Let it air dry.

Next, if you have black paper plates, glue them on as wheels. Or you can use a plate to trace large circles onto black construction paper, which is what I did. I then cut out smaller yellow circles to glue inside the black circles.

Here is where you can get creative. Decorate to your heart's content. I only had blue painters tape on hand, but Duct Tape makes some very fun, colorful tapes with different designs that you can use instead. Tape around the edges for added flair.

Finally, add whatever embellishments your child likes. I added their names to the front with foam letters I found at the Dollar Tree. You can add glitter, buttons, sparkles, stickers, etc. You get the idea!

I hope you have fun creating these box cars for your little speedsters!

AFTER