Creating Miniature Villages from Cardboard

Here's a great craft to give those old toys new life. Create miniature villages with your children and give those miscellaneous toys a home!

Materials:

• Cardboard boxes and tubes
• Construction paper
• Brown packing tape
• Glue
• Scissors
• Duct tape
• Popsicle sticks
• Markers, paint, wallpaper scraps, etc.

Create a base for the village using a large piece of cardboard (or several smaller pieces taped together). You can also use plywood or particle board cut into a 3' x 3' platform.

Paint the surface a solid colour, such as grey for a city scene or green for a country scene.

Have your child make a list of any buildings they want in the village - houses, farms, garages, bridges, etc.

On the base, mark all roadways with heavy black marker. Use pencil marks to note places where buildings, bridges, etc. will be placed.

Start building the village using a variety of cardboard boxes and your child's imagination. Here are some ideas:

• For buildings, select the appropriately sized boxes and cut out the fronts so that all buildings have a large opening. This allows children the freedom to play within each box. Cut out doors and windows as needed. Add additional levels by stacking and gluing additional boxes. Cut out openings for stairways and make stairs by folding cardboard accordion style. Paint and decorate.
• For barns, cut a roof line from the top of the box with a triangular peak at each end. Glue a roof to the barn using a folded piece of cardboard. Cut out doors and windows. Paint and decorate.
• For car washes, remove the lid from a shoebox and turn over. Cut out square openings from both ends. Glue two pieces of construction paper to the top edge of each opening, so that they cover the opening. Cut paper vertically to create fringes. Paint and decorate.

When all buildings are complete glue them to the platform.

Next, enhance the scene by painting additional features to the platform itself. You can also make road signs, traffic lights, streetlamps, treetops, etc. from construction paper glued to Popsicle stick "signposts and tree trunks". When complete, poke Popsicle sticks into base and secure with glue.

Finally add toys and let the play begin!

Notes:

Cover all cardboard in brown paper tape to create uniformed surfaces to work from.

Use this method to make a platform and accessories for your child's wooden trains. Simply lay the train track over the base of your finished town.

By Rochelle Strauss