Cardboard City

Recently, I spotted these cute cardboard city blocks from Pottery Barn Kids.

I liked them, but I didn’t $40 like them — not when I had plenty of free cardboard that was begging me to make something fun and amazing with it. (Does your cardboard ever do that to you??)

So I made my own (more colorful) version, turning these…

…into these!! (It helps to stuff them with newspaper, to make them more sturdy.)

Our colorful cardboard city inspired LOTS of imaginative play time fun!!

It was a great addition to our Melissa & Doug Town Blocks Set, a Christmas gift the kiddos got this year which has since become a new favorite toy around here!

Clara loved building HUGE skyscrapers!!

Both of the girls have already requested a few more buildings, AND a cardboard parking garage like this one. We’ll be putting all that leftover cardboard and the Melissa & Doug set to good use!

Vrrooom! Vrrrooom!!

I’ve added this post to:
Play Academy @ NurtureStore

Comments

  1. Dear Valerie,

    I think that I get the Husband of the Year award for getting you gummed reinforced tape for Christmas. With that being said, I’m not sure that I consider your love of cardboard to be a healthy relationship. 😉

    Love,
    Mark

  2. These are too cute! We might have to make some one day! We have been playing “Hot Chocolate Store!”

  3. Hehehe…. I love Mark’s reply. I want gummed reinforced tape! Oh hubby!!! 🙂 Those are stinkin’ cute Val.

  4. These are fabulous: I’d pay $40 for them before I’d pay $40 for the Pottery Barn ones. Now I just need to work out what on earth gummed reinforced tape is and buy myself some 🙂

  5. We did something similar but we used christmas boxes to make three dimensional bridges, so cute!

  6. Those are like art pieces – so beautiful! It’s got my wheels spinning too!

  7. Very pretty and so-so frugal!

  8. Fabulous! I’m saving almond milk cartons to make some houses for a little town. Some skyscrapers can help make a pretty cool neighborhood.. and I’m thinking store fronts, a bakery perhaps to sell the sock donuts that you inspired? 🙂

  9. I’m lazy, my kids are happily playing with plain old cardboard blocks and loving it.

  10. Your buildings are so fun!!! Can’t wait to see more cardboard creations from your home =)

  11. Wonderful!!

  12. So pretty and colourful!

  13. Was very nice. How do white cartons?

  14. What a cute idea! And I love those block toys, definitely going to have to find some of those.

  15. These are great!! Can you share how you got them white? Paint?

  16. So cute!

    I’d love it if you shared this with the Fun Family Crafts audience.
    FFC is similar to Craftgawker but it only features kid friendly tutorials.

    Looking forward to seeing what fun crafts you submit!
    http://funfamilycrafts.com

Trackbacks

  1. […] Stuff ‘Em — In the case of the city blocks I made (shown above), to help make the boxes more sturdy I stuffed them with newspaper. Simple, and […]

  2. […] Cardboard City {Frugal Family Fun Blog} […]

  3. […] We’ll still be posting about inexpensive crafts and activity ideas — like playing with cardboard boxes…. […]