Cardboard Creations

Today was a fun day! I got out my “maker” box to gather all of my gluing and cutting utensils and then went to town on my recycling pile. I spent entirely too long making cardboard flowers which turned into a floral collage.  I had fun researching and designing different flower shapes and experimenting with colors. I even starting taking food out of boxes in the cabinet to get certain colors. I went a bit overboard, although I had fun, and my final product looks rather erratic. It was so erratic that I decided to make it a sign for my daughter. It needed some kind of focus/purpose.

If I were to do it again, I would make a simpler design with the flower types that turned out well. So I am considering my busy design more of a test prototype for future cardboard flowers! With extra scrap pieces I made a quick vase with one of my favorite flowers.

Overall, I really enjoyed making this freeform design. This was not my first time playing and making with cardboard boxes for fun.  This was a favorite childhood activity besides building outdoor forts. My children love doing pretend play in boxes and drawing on them. I look forward to watching them create designs of their own as they grow.  Today I took an old box I didn’t use and turned it into a parking lot to help my 3 year work on his numbers. I recently saw this idea on Pinterest. After matching up a few cars to their parking lot, he ripped the numbers. He played with the parking lot/ramp for hours.

 
 

This experience made me realize that children of all ages should have the opportunity to create with cardboard. I followed the Global Cardboard Challenge link and would love to implement this at our school on October 7th.  Cardboarding making seems like a great step to begin the maker space journey with students. This is the perfect first step.