October 14, 2026

Cardboard Crafts

A cardboard garage, a flat robot, and a cardboard crown

Cardboard crafts use boxes and the flat pieces left when a box is opened. A box wants to be a garage, a house, or a robot body. A flat piece wants to be a crown, a sign, or a picture frame. The recycled guide has a small box garage. These projects add a robot, a crown, a ramp, and a frame.

Set up the table

Corrugated cardboard is hard to cut. An adult does the knife or the heavy scissors. The child draws, tapes, and adds paper. Work on the floor for big boxes so the table is not the thing getting cut.

Flat robot

Ages: 6+. Time: 30 minutes.

You need: a rectangle of cardboard, smaller rectangles, tape, markers.

  1. The big rectangle is the body.
  2. Tape on a head, arms, and feet.
  3. Draw a face and buttons.
  4. Give the robot one job.

Tape beats glue. Glue slips while they are still adding arms.

Crown

Ages: 5+. Time: 20 minutes.

You need: a strip of cardboard, paper points, tape or a stapler.

  1. Fit the strip around the head and mark the overlap.
  2. They tape points along the band.
  3. An adult staples the ends.
  4. Decorate with marker.

Measure first. A crown that falls off gets abandoned.

Ramp

Ages: 5+. Time: 25 minutes.

You need: a long cardboard strip, a small box, tape, a toy car.

  1. Lean the strip against the box.
  2. Tape the top so it stays.
  3. Draw a road.
  4. Roll the car.

If the strip is too steep, the car falls off the side. Lower the box.

Picture frame

Ages: 6+. Time: 25 minutes.

You need: a cardboard rectangle, a smaller paper picture, tape.

  1. Draw a border on the cardboard.
  2. Tape the picture in the middle, on the back or the front.
  3. Add a triangle stand on the back, taped.
  4. It should stand on its own.

The stand is a triangle of cardboard taped at the bottom edge.

House front

Ages: 6+. Time: 30 minutes.

You need: a box, markers, paper door.

  1. Draw windows on the closed box.
  2. An adult cuts one door that still hinges on one side.
  3. They add a paper number.
  4. A toy can live inside.

Leave the top closed so the box stays strong.

Sign

Ages: 5+. Time: 15 minutes.

You need: a cardboard rectangle, marker, tape.

  1. They decide what the sign says.
  2. You can write the letters they ask for, or they write their own.
  3. Colour a border.
  4. Tape it to a door.

Invented spelling is fine. The sign still works.

What to watch

Cardboard edges can be sharp after a cut. Run a piece of tape over a rough edge if small hands will hold it. Do not cut toward yourself or toward the child.

The Imagination Hive is a children’s art and STEM studio in Milton, Ontario. These projects use ordinary supplies so you can start at the kitchen table.

Keep making