Tag Archives: cardboard crafts

Book Craft and GIVEAWAY: Fungi Grow and Mushroom House Craft

Posted in Children's Books, Free Tutorials, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

The giveaway is now closed. Thank you for participating!

Fungi Grow by Maria Gianferrari and illustrated by Diana Sudyka is a delightful homage to the funny, fantastic world of mushrooms. Maria’s winsome rhymes and fascinating factoids, matched with Diana’s dreamy, mulchy paintings are as delightful as a walk in the woods and as surprising as spotting a Red Chanterelle!

Inspired by Fungi Grow, this Mushroom House craft uses all of my favorite ingredients: whimsy, simplicity and recyclables! I pilfered the recycling bin for a mix of cardboard textures, and that classic craft mainstay–the cardboard toilet paper roll (no one ever runs out of these.)

MATERIALS:

  • Cardboard toilet paper roll
  • Cardstock paper (or cereal box-cardboard)
  • Scissors
  • Hot-glue gun or glue stick
  • Paint

Optional: cupcake liners, coffee filters, corks, whole-punched paper, origami paper, textured cardboard odds and ends–get silly and creative!

DIRECTIONS:

  1. With scissors, cut a curved “door” at the base of your toilet paper roll (leaving one side attached to serve as the “hinge.”
  2. For the mushroom cap, cut out a circle of your card stock or cereal box cardboard (or any paper of your choice). Circles can be lopsided and imperfect. Start big and trim smaller as desired.
  3. Cut one slit to the center of your circle. This will allow you to overlap the paper and create your cap.
  4. If you are using card stock or cardboard, use hot glue to adhere (adults only). Thinner paper will hold with glue stick. Confused about this bit? Watch the video below:

5. Glue the mushroom cap to its stem.
6. Now is the time to paint! Let it get messy. Add bits of paper, buttons, beads–bedazzle!
7. Finally, invite little critters to move inside. . .

Which mushrooms are real?

Maria Gianferrari’s yard is full of fungi. From branching corals and pointy stinkhorns to smoky puffballs and colorful jack-o’-lanterns, everything’s coming up mushrooms! Someday she hopes to find some morels—she’ll even share them with a squirrel. Maria’s favorite edible mushroom is the hearty portobello. She lives in Massachusetts.
Diana Sudyka grew up hearing stories of her grandfather, an ardent forager, bringing home chicken of the woods and maitake mushrooms for meals. Her favorite edible mushroom is the delicious morel that popped up in her yard last spring. Diana lives with her family in Evanston, Illinois.

It’s a piece of cake!

Posted in Paper, Stuff to make by

Cardboard cake by homemadecity.com

I haven’t been here for a while. I’m not really sure why. But . . . here I am again, and back with my happiest craft from the past year. I made this slice of cardboard cake as a three-dimensional card for a friend on a particular birthday. (It was also the year of my own particular birthday.)

I don’t know why making fake cake should be such a giddy experience, but it was. I grinned and grinned, hot glue gun in hand.

Clearly, cake doesn’t have to be edible to be delicious. Wayne Thiebaud on the subject:

Image result for wayne thiebaud cake

I sawed cardboard pieces with my X-acto and covered them in a collage of paint sample strips. Of course, this was the pink for the top:

Cardboard cake by homemadecity.com

Layering the rosette made me delirious with glee:

Cardboard cake by homemadecity.com

And then a little door to the hollow inside, space for a secret message:

Cardboard cake by homemadecity.com

I hope you have something to celebrate with cardboard cake. I recommend it.

Cardboard cake by homemadecity.com

Cardboard cake project by homemadecity.com

Creative Kid: 3 Bears Chairs

Posted in Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

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This year in my library (FYI: my day job is elementary school librarian), the kids are making a storybook house from cardboard boxes and recyclables. Every week we add a room–Jack’s beanstalk-green bedroom, Little Red’s ruby-hued bachelorette pad, etc. Right now we’re working on the Three Bears’ kitchen, where a golden-curled interloper slurps up soup and breaks chairs.

The students do their creative best with glue sticks and dull scissors. But sometimes I help out on the sly. This is such a case.

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Armed with toilet paper cardboard rolls, scrapbook paper and my trusty glue gun, I happily spent an evening making three chairs–in varying sizes. I sliced and narrowed the toilet paper roll for Baby Bear’s squat seat, and sliced and joined two rolls for Papa Bear’s wide berth. (Mama Bear’s medium chair didn’t need adjusting. It was just right.)

I wish I had directions to share, but I don’t. In keeping with the spirit of our library project, I just winged it and left things in crude form. I will post photos of the storybook house soon though so you can see the kids’ imaginative handiwork. They amaze me.