26 Fun Cardboard Box Ideas

Are the winter blues getting you down? Are your kids feeling cooped up and in need of fun indoor activities? How about some cardboard fun. All of these DIY cardboard crafts would be a child's dream come true. Look at these amazing ideas. I also discovered a wonderful post on How to Work With Cardboard by ikatbag. I will feature many of her creative ideas below.

John Deere Cardboard Tractor by The Party Wall

 

Cardboard Barn by The Party Wall

Cardboard Playhouse by Kimbo

Cardboard Produce Stand by Ikatbag.com

Cardboard Kitchen by Declutter, Organize, Repurpose

Cardboard Gas Station Pump by Declutter, Organize, Repurpose

Cardboard Plane by Mini Mocha

Cardboard Motorcycle by Solo and the Wookie

Cardboard Castle by Ikatbag

Crazy Cardboard House by Ann Wood

Cardboard Canvas by Filth Wizardry

Cardboard Puppet Theater from KidoInfo

Miniature Cardboard Castle by Fimby

Cardboard Dinosaur from the Anthropologie Catalog

Cardboard Guitars by Make It and Love It

Cardboard Bookshelf

Child Activity Toy from Parents Magazine

Cardboard Purses by Ikatbag



Lightning McQueen Cardboard Car by Greene Acres Hobby Farm



Tow Mater by Greene Acres Hobby Farm



Cardboard Train (Locomotive) by Greene Acres Hobby Farm



Cardboard Pirate Ship (Boat) by Willing to Risk Ready To Go



Cardboard Angry Birds from Crafts By Amanda


Cardboard Robots by Cardboard Crafts



Cardboard Suitcases by Ikatbag.com


And the ultimate cardboard genius...Mr. McGroovy His photos are all copyrighted so you will have to just check out his website and flickr albumns. Look at this amazing pirate ship that would be perfect for our upcoming birthday party! I would love for you to share links to some of your own cardboard crafts and projects!

3/5/12 Update...I made my boys their very own cardboard pirate ship. Instructions here.

Toast to the Red Carpet LIVE Contest

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I can't believe...It's Not Butter...has a LIVE online red carpet viewing party where Hollywood stars will offer insider access and dish on red carpet fashion. Watch live on February 26th from 3-4 PM PST on I Can't Believe It's Not Butter's facebook page. I am excited to get a comfortable spot on the couch with some popcorn covered in I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and watch the live interviews unfold. I might even try a twist on my normal buttered popcorn with this recipe I found on their website. This Chili Parmesan Popcorn and Peanuts recipe looks mouth watering!

Ingredients:

18 cups plain popped popcorn

1/4 cup I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Spread, melted

3 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp Kosher salt

3/4 cup dry roasted peanuts

2 Tbsp parmesan cheese

 

 

Instructions:

Put popcorn in large bowl. In small bowl, combine melted I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!® Spread, chili powder and salt; drizzle over popcorn and toss until evenly coated. Add peanuts and cheese; toss.

CONTEST

This amazing event is accompanied by a contest. Leave a comment on this post describing why you will be watching Toast to the Red Carpet – LIVE, presented by I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! and interact live on I Can't Believe It's Not Butter's Facebook page on February 26th. One lucky contestant will receive a coupon for a free tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. The giveaway item is provided by I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Contest ends February 26th at 11:59 PM.

See you all then. I am looking forward to the Red Carpet Event! CNN described the red carpet best when they said, "While it takes a mere moment to wind up on the worst-dressed list, it takes a stunning comeback, or two, before redemption is bestowed. And with everything that goes into achieving a "best-dressed"-worthy look, attendees are lucky they have an entire season to perfect their red carpet style."

Pirate Party Invitations

We are in the process of preparing a swashbuckling pirate adventure party for my two sons. The first step was obviously making the invitations. I got motivated to work on them just in time to send them out for the party. The crazy part is the invites I designed have a lot of steps...and I made 40. Our family is enormous and I can't dare leave anyone out or it could quickly result in World War III. (Not kidding. Lol!)

Arrgh..Come if ye dare

Directions:

1. I started with a 5x7 piece of black and white polka dot paper and my map found here

2. I added on my invitation wording backed on brown paper

3. I found a cute little pirate boy graphic and cut him out. I attached him with foam for more dimension.

4. I bought some beautiful brown and black yarn and tied on a little ship sailing in the wind.

Now to mail all the pirate invitations out. These DIY pirate invites were not hard to make, but I would be lying if I didn't say they were time consuming. However, when my oldest son saw them and his face lit up, it was worth it all. He said, "Mom, you mean we are sending each kid their own treasure map. This is awesome!"

Pecan Crusted Salmon

I hope your Valentine's Day was special. This year, I decided to treat my husband to date night, because normally he is in charge of all the Valentine plans. He loves watching the Food Network shows, so when I received an email that a nearby restaurant was having a Valentine's Day brunch and cooking class with an amazing local chef known for his cowboy cooking, I signed us up. I managed to keep it a secret for a whole month.

When his mom arrived to babysit I started giving him clues. I usually only do silly games with my kids, but somehow I was inspired to try it on my husband. I was a little worried he would think it was stupid and corny but I gave it a shot. I had envelopes with six clues. In each envelope was a graphic image clue. It was comparable to playing pictionary, but I did not have to draw.

For example, one was a fire with a cooking kettle hanging over it. Another was a line of people, a spear, a camp sign, etc.

About 5 minutes into the game, my husband smiled and said, this is pretty fun. No wonder our boys like the silly things you do. He did figure it out before we arrived and was fairly please with himself. We went to Linecamp's Steakhouse in Tolar, Texas with chef Grady Spears. I will share a few pictures at the end and eventually some new recipes. No, this salmon recipe is not from Grady Spears. His recipes are much fancier!

Ingredients:

Salmon Fillets

2 cups milk

1 cup finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 packed brown sugar

2 tsp seasoned salt

2 tsp pepper

3 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Place salmon fillets in a large resealable plastic bag; add milk. Let stand for 10 minutes; drain.

2. Let stand for ten minutes; drain. In a shallow bowl, combine the pecans, flour, brown sugar, seasoned salt and pepper. Coat fillets with pecan mixture, gently pressing into the fish.

3. In a large skillet, brown salmon in oil over medium-high heat. Transfer to a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

4. Enjoy!

This is Grady Spears at our cowboy cooking class. They have a class in the warm weather, where he cooks outside over an open flame that sounds really intriguing as well.

My husband and I at LineCamp Steakhouse for our brunch and cooking class....after some amazing margaritas.

Leaping Lizards! Won't You Be My Valentine?

Happy Valentines Day!!! Did you know it is leap year this year? Leaping Lizards! Won't You Be My Valentine? My 2 year olds Valentine party at school is not until tomorrow, so we came up with this last minute Valentine today. After all of those great inspirations I shared a week ago, you would think I would already have my kids Valentines ready. We made these this morning. My son loved gluing on the hearts and lizards. At least...he was very excited about attempting to help.

Some interesting info from timeanddate.com.

Why do we need Leap Years?

Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun.
It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun.

Note: The illustration is not to scale.

However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn't add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

How do we calculate Leap Years?

In the Gregorian calendar 3 criteria must be met to be a leap year:

• The year is evenly divisible by 4;
• If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless;
• The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

This means that 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years.
The year 2000 was somewhat special as it was the first instance when the third criterion was used in most parts of the world since the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar.

Who invented Leap Years?

Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years in the Roman empire over 2000 years ago, but the Julian calendar had only one rule: any year evenly divisible by 4 would be a leap year. This lead to way too many leap years, but didn't get corrected until the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar more than 1500 years later.

Don't forget we get an extra day this year!

Door Hanging Valentine Post Office

A while back, I saw a cute door hanging puppet theater that inspired this Valentine themed post office for mail delivery. My boys love mail, so Valentines are especially fun. Letter writing seems to be an increasingly lost art these days, but who doesn't love receiving something in the mail besides bills! I know I do.

My kids have quite an imagination of their own, but I always think it helps to play with them and encourage new ideas. I also made some small felt letters to play mail delivery with. They are the perfect size to insert store bought valentines or homemade ones.

I started off by cutting a piece of red velvet fabric to fit the doorway. I then sewed all the edges under. You could easily use press in tape if you don't choose to sew.

Next, I cut out the letters for mail and two hearts and used a zig zag stitch to secure them. (Again, you could use press on adhesive if you don't sew)

I cut the window opening 19" x 9" and then a small mail slot approx 1" x 8". If I were to make another hanging post office, I would probably cut the window much smaller. (Possibly 9x9). I then used red, pink, and white ribbon to trim out the window and mail slot.

I sewed up some sweet felt envelopes for our Valentine letters. Only one day left!!

Got Mail?

 

Our Valentine Additions!

We stepped ouside in the cold this morning to find a precious gift that had just been born. Our goat Cookie had her first baby. We thought she was only pregnant with one until...a second pygmy goat emerged. We named the precious babies Valentine and Sugar. These two girls are so adorable, cuddly, and precious!

This is Valentine. She is the bigger of the two and probably weighs around 5 lbs.

Valentine on the left and Sugar on the right...and yes they are in our bathroom!

Go figure it has been warm all winter here in Texas and then it snowed tonight! My boys thought it was the best day ever. With the weather being so cold, we had to bring them all inside, so the babies would not freeze to death. They are not as messy as I thought. I guess it could always be worse. We had to help them nurse the first time, and I hope they pick it up quickly. Momma Cookie is doing a great job taking care of her girls and we are so excited to have them. My boots got a little dirty in the delivery outside today and my husband said I was officially a farm girl now!

Valentine Heart Wreath

I passed an adorable Valentine wreath a few weeks ago on Pinterest and then couldn't find it again. That is what I get for delayed pinning. I am pretty sure that is the whole point of the site too! I remembered enough, to make a similar one of my own, before I finally found the inspiration wreath at Remodelaholic. Obviously, mine looks a little different, because I was only born with a partially photographic memory.

Supplies:

Foam wreath

Grey yarn

Pink and Red felt

Ribbon

Name Initial (If desired)

Directions:

1. I started by wrapping my green foam wreath with the yarn. I tied off the first loop of yarn to hold it in place. A little glue would have worked too.

2. Find a good movie or tv show and start wrapping....and wrapping...and wrapping.

3. Cut out your hearts from red and pink felt. Once your wreath is completely wrapped, lay the hearts in place on top. (Don't cut the yarn yet!)

4. Start wrapping over the hearts carefully, keeping in mind, that at then end you want it took look like an X over each heart.

5. Wrap a second time around the wreath until you have the X pattern on each heart.

6. Tie off your yarn at the end and tuck it in on the back side of the wreath. I painted my G red and hung it down in the middle of the wreath.

What fun last minute Valentine projects are you up to?

We are not so patiently waiting at our house for a new addition. No, I am not pregnant...but our pygmy goat is. See our fun story of Cookie (the goat) here. We are still new to farm life, but I am pretty sure she is due any day.