Creative Cardboard Mural #Activity and #Craft

 {Materials}

• Cardboard box or large piece of cardboard
• Crayons, markers, pencil crayons
• Paint
• Stickers
• Tape (optional)

{Process}

• Use the box as a fort for as long as you like
• Open along the seams and lay flat on the floor
• Unprinted side up
• Tape to the floor so it doesn't move (optional)
• Sit on the cardboard, doodle, draw and create!
• Leave on the floor as a creative floor mural or tape up as a wall mural
• Can add to the mural as days go by

My oldest son loves cardboard boxes. While I was in the hospital after giving birth to our new baby boy my husband stayed home with our toddler. He installed the new car seat in our car and then made a fort out of the big box for our son to play in..

He played in that cardboard box for 3 months! It finally fell apart after a bunch of kids were playing in there at his 2nd birthday party.

Instead of recycling the cardboard I decided to reuse it to make a fun creative floor mural.

I spread the cardboard flat on the floor with the printed side down. Gathered up all of our markers, pencil crayons and wax crayons. I wanted to give him a variety of materials to draw and color with. Stickers helped to re-capture his attention after he got bored with drawing.

I actually loved this activity myself! I sat in the floor and drew pictures of flowers, trees and suns with him. He liked to color-in my drawings and add stickers to my doodles.

We traced his hands and feet and drew little racetracks for his cars.

I love how much space he had to express himself. I didn't have to worry about him keeping the markers on the paper like usual. He could make large drawings and move from place to place.

I left the floor mural in place and added to it each day until it was full. As I am writing this, he is still playing with that box! Right now he is folding it over, crawling inside, saying bye bye and then bursting out. He keeps bringing all of his little toy cars inside with him also.

So one cardboard box can provide months of fun as a fort and then days of creative space as a floor mural.

Who needs expensive toys when you have a box?! 

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What are your favorite activities to do with cardboard boxes? Have you made a box fort yet?