Cardboard DIY construction kit

This recycled cardboard DIY construction kit was inspired by the book Fun and Easy Crafting with Recycled Materials by Kimberley McLeod.

If you’ve never heard of Kimberley, you’ve probably heard of her blog or seen her famous kids crafts floating around on the internet. She blogs over at The Best Ideas for Kids.

disclosure: We were gifted a copy of the book to review but all opinions and ideas are my own

There are SO many crafts and ideas in the book that it’s hard to pick something to create, and I love that they’re all based on recycled materials.

The girls love testing out craft books from our blogger friends and made some cute popsicle stick trinket boxes which we shared on instagram late last year. I decided to have a go at the cardboard stacking craft.

I followed the instructions in the book to make the basic stacking set. It was really easy and would be a fun DIY toy for younger kids to encourage STEM skills and play.

The basic stacking set has paper rolls with two notches cut in the top and bottom to place strips of cardboard so you can stack them. They can be stacked in all sorts of ways and give kids a good opportunity to experiment with balance.

I always see craft books as a launching platform to get ideas from. You can make things exactly how they appear or you can add to it or change it completely with more ideas of your own.

I decided to add more pieces to the stacking kit so you could use it to make more things.

Optional steps to turn the stacking set into a diy construction kit:

Add extra notches in the top of each paper roll piece so that you can place the cardboard strips at right angles
Make a cardboard roof by cutting out an oblong shape of cardboard. Then cut it halfway through in three places (in the centre, then approx 2cm from each edge) so that it can fold into a roof shape and slot down into the notches
Make some faces to create people or animals from the set. I made two horse faces and a round happy face to create a person
Tie some yarn into small bundles for hair. You can cut a notch into the top of the head shapes to slot the yarn in.

By making these extra pieces the kit becomes more versatile. You can could add to it by making different animal heads and more pieces, and see what things your kids come up with.