Jellyfish Jelly – Creative Kids

Sep

2011

Cardboard Chandelier

by admin

Here’s how to turn 2 cereal boxes, 1 cardboard roll, 1 soft drink bottle and a few paperclips into:
The instructions for making this chandelier are fairly detailed, but here’s an overview:

The centre of the chandelier is a kitchen towel cardboard roll.
The chandelier arms and embellishments are made from cereal box cardboard, painted with black acrylic.
The teardrop ‘jewels’ dangling from the base are cut from a clear soft drink bottle.
The chains are linked paperclips.
I didn’t use any glue or staples in this project. The whole thing is held together with interlocking cuts into the cardboard. The paperclips link together and hang from the chandelier via holes punched into each piece.
Printable cutting templates are available on the instruction sheets.
Younger children will find these shapes too difficult to cut, so I have also provided a simpler version of the chandelier template (See the pink chandelier pictured below)

Click here for full instructions (Pdf)

Above: Cardboard Chandelier #2 - Simple(r!) Version

*NB. I am sure this goes without saying, but I will anyway. I do not recommend you try combining this project with real light globes. It is cardboard – it will catch fire – your house will burn down….

More of my cardboard crafts:

Chinese Lantern

Easter Suncatcher

Caterpillar

Tags: cardboard, chandelier, craft, decoration, halloween, kid's
Posted in Arty Parties, Home Decor, Papercraft, Play House, Uncategorized | 58 Comments »

Aug

2011

Simple Play Kitchen Renovation

by admin

I found some rather uninspiring melamine bookshelves at Red Dot. (I think I keep that place in business!) The shelves may have been dreary but their low price was truly exhilarating. With the ‘help’ of my children, we transformed them from this:

To this:

To make the sink, I traced the outline of a plastic container onto the top of the shelf and cut it out with a jigsaw, then slipped the container into the space. The container had a lip to stop it from falling through.

To make the taps and faucet, I found some garden reticulation parts that vaguely resembled the bits I needed. I screwed the ‘taps’ in and attached the plastic white button thingos that conceal screws – not sure of the name, but I found them at the hardware.

The hotplates are simply 4 circles of black plastic with red craft foam circles in the centre. The knobs are milk bottle tops. Like the taps, I attached them with screws and stuck on white buttons to conceal the screw.

The doors are 3mm MDF. I chose this to keep the costs down, but if I had my time over I’d probably spend more to get the thicker board. The 3mm warped a little when we painted it. It was also difficult to attach the hinges to such a thin board. Rather than complicated latches, I used sticky-back velcro to keep the doors shut.

The 3 tier bookshelf became the fridge/freezer.

I found some carboard boxes that fit perfectly into the bottom shelves for storage. We painted the front of the box to match the doors.

I have 2 mini muffin trays. Goodness knows why. The chances of me baking even one mini muffin = zero. So I donated one to the play oven. I screwed 2 pieces of pine to the interior sides of the oven so the tray sits in the middle as a sliding shelf.

I made the kitchen to fit perfectly along one wall of our cubby house. The kids enjoy it immensly, hence it is already covered in sand, leaves and sticks – as it should be. It really wasn’t terribly difficult to make – and I’m certainly no woodworking expert. Altogether the whole kitchen cost me about $70 (including the shelves)

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