paint cut paste

we are honored to partake in tinkerlab’s one year anniversary cardboard box challenge, alongside so many amazing bloggers! when presented with this challenge, i wondered how we could incorporate two things that N is naturally curious about exploring right now: illustrating (like a fiend!) and butterflies. i like to go with the flow…

with mother’s day coming up, my own uber-creative mom is on my mind a lot… and this blog is purely an homage to her. i decided to attempt to replicate a “visual aid” my mom created with me for science class when i was in about third grade. a perfect marriage of cardboard, drawing, butterflies, and celebrating MOM!

first, this crunchy boho-chic (um, pretty please?) momma got a new pair of birkenstocks (long overdue! sigh – but not so chic.) the box they came in seemed perfect for the challenge. i used an x-acto knife to cut a little window in the top of the lid to serve as our “screen” for the story to show through. then i sliced Xs across from each other in the top sides and bottom sides of the box, which is where our dowels (cardboard tubes) would go. that was the grown-up part of the project.

yes, i have big feet & when it comes to birks, i'm classic arizona or maybe a florida

next, N chose turquoise acrylic paint to cover the box, and used a small paint roller to paint the entire box. then she picked plum purple paint to paint the dowels. i remember that the version my mom and i made in the 80s was wrapped in fabulous hot pink butterfly wrapping paper, but we opted for paint so we could open & close the box afterwards.

while the box was drying, we cut a long thin strip of white scroll paper (from the roll of paper that goes on her easel.) we discussed the life cycle of a butterfly, which is currently what N is learning in preschool. on monday of this week, they watched the butterflies emerge from the chrysalis with wet wings and fly away. she is fascinated to say the least!

N named 4 stages of the butterfly: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or pupa, and butterfly. as you see above, i drew boxes vertically along the scroll of paper for each stage, and two extra – for a title page and ending page. N is a sucker for puns, and got a great idea to draw a butterfly dancing on a stage for her title page: “stages of a butterfly”

she then got busy illustrating each of the phases in the cycle.

and was quite proud.

after the box was dry, N added many different butterfly stickers to its surface.

we opened the lid and used packaging tape to tape the top of the scroll to the top dowel and the bottom to the bottom dowel. (i love that this box has a hinged lid so that we can open and close it to perhaps insert different “stories” later!)

that's the image of the butterfly dancing on a stage. get it?

once the story box was complete, N was sooo excited about it! “we made a TV!” she exclaimed. i’ll let her give you the little tour through her story, winding the dowels at the top and bottom to crank the scroll through the images…

the four stages – images spliced together

click image to enlarge to see details - those are droplets from the "wet wings" in the last image

ta da!

the end (i'm sure the box could have used another coat of paint)

thank you to rachelle at tinkerlab for this challenge and for one year of your oh-so-inspiring blogs! and huge gratitude to my amazing mom for your contagious creative spirit and igniting my passion for self-expression! i hope i can do the same for my daughter.

happy mothers’ day weekend, mommas!

wanna see more cardboard creations?

what kid hasn’t transformed a cardboard box into a house or car? well, mine hadn’t until today. we recently got a new water cooler that came in a big box with some extra cardboard padding. just had to recycle some and upcycle the rest into an artsy plaything, of course!

first, N saw the cardboard and asked if she could draw on it with markers. once the markers were in hand, she said she wanted to draw a house on it. a lightbulb appeared above my head (in cartoon world,) and i suggested the cardboard BE the house and she draw all of the things on it that she’d want on the outside of her house. then she went to work on windows and doors, grass and flowers, trees and nests…

when she was finished drawing, i used an x-acto knife to cut out the door. i might have cut out the windows, too, if N hadn’t drawn such cute curtains onto them.

then i taped the two pieces of cardboard together with packaging tape to make them into a square.

N immediately began to bring in the (animal) inhabitants and furnishings.

she set a bunch of animals all around a fireplace, on chairs and benches, and said they were “telling stories and roasting marshmallows.” cozy. she even draped a yellow playsilk over the top of the box to make it seem bright inside, “and to keep out the rain.”

sure, these cardboard creations can get so much more elaborate. i’ve seen beautiful, intricate cardboard houses and birdhouses and furnishings made by others. but for us, this was an impromptu sunday morning thing that just happened simply and organically, just the way i like it. and there’s always room for N’s little house to grow!

this was good for HOURS of play today after it was made… wonder who will move in tomorrow…

i’m almost certain that you’ve seen this eco-chic interior design element out there in the d.i.y. blogosphere… the transformation of a paper towel or toilet paper roll into wall art. (who doesn’t drool over design sponge? adore them.) that’s where i first saw this cute project, and it captured my interest, but it seemed a rather adult art project to me. i always get excited about the idea of using things from our recycling bin!

naturally, i wanted N to join in the upcycling fun. i mean, this truly is a paint cut paste project (uh… cut, paint, paste) so we tried it out… cutting through cardboard with kid scissors isn’t too much fun, so i cut up two paper towel rolls into little rings that were about an inch wide. i didn’t measure to be exact – i just eye-balled it.

for some odd reason, i figured that i’d spray paint (alone during nap time: spray paint + kids = no way) the rings white. i thought it’d make it more brilliant when she painted them with colors, but honestly it made no difference. skip this step, unless you want your finished product to be white and modern (aka: not a kid craft.)

when the white paint was dry, the fun began. N chose the paint (we used acrylics) some of the rings lavender and some of them spring green. she had lots of fun painting her hands the rings. she opted to only paint the outsides of the rings (though if you were able to paint the insides, too, the finished product may be more cohesive.)

once the colorful paint dried, we had fun arranging the rings into shapes. i had spray painted a box top white earlier, and N decided this would be her frame, and she wanted to make a flower inside of it. we glued the rings together in a flower shape, holding them with mini clothespins until they were dry. (any clips will work.) if you’re not doing this with kids, staples may be quicker.

after the leaves and petals had adhered together, N drizzled the glue generously onto the back of the flower, and i pressed it into her frame. (elmer’s glue dries clear so no worries on the drizzling.) she was excited about the results!

with the remaining “leaves” we decided to glue them together at random to make a cluster. right now it’s just sort of hanging out in N’s bathroom.

i’m considering doing a natural-colored (no painting involved) version of this for our playroom wall, above N’s fairy treehouse… if i do, i’ll letcha know!