What I Made Today

I had several things I needed to do today, wash clothes, do the dishes, finish a quilt, but instead I got distracted by these boxes that Marco's new bike came in.

You see, what I wanted to do was build a fort for the neighborhood kids. I orginally thought a nice "house" shape would be nice, something with four walls, a door and a roof.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there would be 6 kids (or more!) playing in it, so I wanted to create something with more space. This is how I did it.

First I cut the big pieces into big, flat pieces, and arranged them to make four rooms.

I added some doors and windows (and shutters).

I ended up with two "outdoor" rooms and two "indoor" rooms.  Taking this as my jumping off point, I started to build a few props.

Pictured above are a stove, two fences, a mail box, a baby bed with baby and the makings of a few bushes and a tree.

Next I added some details by hot gluing on some tissue paper that I rescued from a recent birthday party and some ripped up scraps of other cardboard pieces to make the bark of the tree.

And then moved the whole thing outside in the sunshine.  It kept blowing over in the breeze, so I had to support it with a few well placed bricks and a bamboo pole.  Hopefully the kids won't mind too much.  

I love how the awning over this doorway turned out.  This picture is a little blown out- I was trying to get out of the way so the kids could play and didn't bother messing with my camera settings.

You can see the flowers I drew on the fence got tissue paper heads, as well as leaves on my tree base.  I attempted to draw some last minute bushes on the wall, but I had run out of green tissue paper.

I drew on a fireplace in this room since most of the houses in this neighborhood have them, and added the fire with pink and yellow tissue paper. I thought the doll and bed should go in the room with the cozy fire.

At the last minute I added this little table with tissue paper table cloth and three cardboard dishes.  I thought it would go nicely with the stove and counter.

I wanted it to be pretty minimal, allowing the kids to move the props around, or forgo props completely.  I think the basic principle for cardboard houses should be to encourage imagination, not provide everything possible.  Some rooms turned out "better" than others, but we'll see what the kids think when they all get home from school.

Honestly, I don't love the way it looks in these pictures.  Too washed out and empty.  But I guess I didn't do it for the pictures, I did it for the kids.  Hopefully next time I'll try to slow down and actually adjust my camera settings.  Now though, it's time for playing.  Happy weekend!