Recycled Cardboard Castle Craft
Here’s a winning craft idea: have fun making a cardboard castle craft, creating a play set for future pretend adventures. Raid your recycling bin for cardboard tubes and a box, and craft your own cute recycled cardboard castle. Use your castle for all sorts of open-ended imaginative play, which will provide hours of fun and make old action figures seem new again.
Use our idea to spark your own dream castle. Paint or wallpaper it, add illustrations, or add additional wings or a big tower made of an oatmeal canister. Your castle’s design is up to you!
What you need to make a cardboard castle craft:
- Recycled cardboard box (such as a Kix Cereal box)
- Cardboard tubes
- Construction paper
- Bamboo skewers
- Yarn
- Markers
- White glue, hot glue and glue sticks (parents only)
- Tape
- Scissors
Instructions:
1. Parents only, cut the side off of a cardboard box. Cut square indents into the open side to create the castle-like shape to the top. (Is there a name for the top of a castle?)
2. Cut slits in the bottom of tubes to attach them to the top of the castle. Secure with tape or glue. These will create the castle’s towers.
3. To make the tower roof, cut a circle from construction paper. Trace around the bottom of a cup for a handy circle template. Cut a small pie piece out of the circle, to the middle of the circle. Overlap the two edges of the pie pieces to create the tower roof shape. Parents, secure with hot glue or tape.
4. Insert a bamboo skewer into the center of the tower roof to create the flag pole. Tape or glue the skewer to the edge of the castle. Add a construction paper flag to the top of the flagpole. Secure with tape or glue.
5. Draw castle decorations (windows, bushes, a door, etc.) on construction paper, then cut out and glue onto box with white glue. Add a drawbridge with yarn pulls.
After your cardboard castle is finished, get your action figures, princesses, or ponies out and have fun playing!
Heather Mann is the mother of four boys, and is constantly on the lookout for fun games, activities, and recipes to keep her busy boys, well, busy. She designs and shares clever crafts with a frugal twist at her site Dollar Store Crafts and ideas for being the best mom ever (on a budget) at Dollar Store Mom.