Honey Comb Cardboard

A beautiful new cardboard find this week: Honey comb. I only have a few pieces dug out of a fruit vendors recycling pile.

We've come up with one way to use it so far...in our toolboxes.

Grocery Bag Business Cards

Meeting new people here in Japan involves developing more formalized graces. As a farm girl from the Midwest, this is always an area of improvement for me.

One artifact of the Japanese getting to know you ritual is the business card and/or name card. When you meet someone new in Japan it's considered polite to exchange your contact information in this tangible, well organized way.

I for one love the practice, as it's elevated me from the frantic find a pen and write your name and phone number on an old receipt routine to a calmer more professional approach. Proper procedure involves offering your name card with both hands (as shown above) with a little bow of the head.

Now that the blog is becoming more of it's own entity, I put together a name card using some brown Kraft paper grocery bags that I found in someone's recycling the other day. It's not as heavy as a traditional business card, but I think it's really nice, and still very durable. If you have a business card template on your word-processing software it's a very easy process.

I originally wanted to print onto post-consumer cardboard, but my ideal specimen would be a cereal box, and unfortunately we're an oatmeal and eggs family. Cereal is not widely eaten for breakfast in Japan, so it's also been hard to find used cereal boxes. I'd love to hear if anyone has tried printing on cereal boxes, did your printer take them?

I also wanted to share this great link with you, showcasing a letterpress printer that prints business cards onto old cereal boxes. (If I ever get a business info stamp, this could be a possible approach for my old tea boxes.) They are BEauTiful! Lots of other great ideas there too...

So hey, even if you're business-less, how about a name-card or blog-card to step up your game? Why not?

A Cardboard Toolbox for Kids

As a family of makers, a kids' cardboard toolbox was next up on our cardboard making list. I found a smaller box with smaller handholds for the toolbox with real tools, real nuts and bolts and other real stuff, for real cardboard projects...

Child sized tools: embellishment hammer, round tipped serrated cutting blade, spackling blade, screwdriver and safety scissors

Assorted screws, bolts, nuts and washers

Here's a peek at our first project. I originally saw this idea in what I believe was a February 2012 issue of Family Fun Magazine. They used dry wall screws and a rock for pounding, which would work too.

We enjoyed the opportunity to do some parallel "making". It was great to all be focused on different cardboard projects while we pounded, sawed and glued to our heart's content.

The accordion cardboard drop cloth is a great addition to this ensemble. I blogged about it last fall here.

Do you have a cardboard tool kit or set of tools for your kids? I'd love to hear how others are making cardboard construction play accessible for kids of all ages...

Make a Cardboard Toolbox

Two years ago I found a beautiful old wooden sheep shearing box at Camberwell Market during a trip to Australia with my family.

It was beautifully worn and even had tiny little strands of wool still caught in some of the corners. I quickly filled it up with my favorite sewing tools and supplies, and have enjoyed toting it around immensely ever since.

I have long thought about trying to replicate the design in cardboard for my cardboard tools. When I started working with banana boxes last year I realized I had found a possible solution.

I spent several weeks in late December and early January creating a variety of designs and assembly techniques that incorporated the pre-made features from the banana box like the pre-punched handholds.

I truly believe that this (essentially paper) toolbox could last a lifetime before being recycled.  It's easy to build, strong, durable, and functional. Maybe someone will buy mine at a flea market some day. Wouldn't that be a dream! (Although maybe now that I've built about 10 extras, I might get on that sooner than later...)

The act of constructing a cardboard toolbox instantly transforms you from a passive Cardboard Aficionado into an energized Cardboard Maker- be prepared for this dynamic life change!

You'll need:

• Approx. 30 minutes of your time

• 1 banana box

• cutting tool

• ruler

• pencil

• large binder clips or small clamps

• white glue (I prefer low VOC eco glue

Cardboard Finger Puppet Book

This Christmas present  was a team project. I got lots of guidance while I was sewing the facial features on "wiggle worm." My daughter also wrote the story for the book, which strangely enough changes every time you read it... you can catch the "text" below.

Stitch your wiggle worm together from a fabric scrap.

Cut holes in the middle of the pages of a cardboard book. Cardboard book how to here. Tape your worm in place.

Glue a cardboard page over top, to secure the "wiggle worm."

Looking a little smug after the photo shoot isn't he?

Cardboard Tinkering Toy: Cardboard and Cork Flip Car

This car is SO much fun!

It really makes my girls giggle because it seems like it has its own personality. We've had a great time tinkering with ramps, and there was also a failed zig-zag chute, but the girls also love attaching a string and chasing after each.

This project is pretty intuitive once you gather all the tools and materials together. A few pointers:

* Use large paperclips that have fewer kinks to straighten out.

* Try to cut your corks as evenly as possible.

* You can make the car without the hinge in the middle, but if you do make the hinge, be sure to leave a gap between the hinging parts.

I hope you try this one out, it truly is a toy for all ages!

Cardboard Costume Challenge Results

[slideshow_deploy id=2839] (Notes: Because all of the costumes were essentially made of cardboard elements mixed with other media, I eliminated the "hybrid" category. There were no bicycle costume entries.)

Adults:

Edward Westerhuis: I am the Ram! Cardboardia: Cardboard Jack-o-lantern (Special Mention) Leelada via Flickr: Cardboard Cowboys

Kids:

wrnking via Flickr: Cardboard Knight Rachel and Tom Morgan: Archery Knight

Kid Made:

Leo: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Sid: Star Wars Storm Trooper (Special Mention) Lego Block

You all have me pondering the many new ideas you put out there with your incredible costumes! I'm thinking about metallic cardboard, felt on cardboard, fringed cardboard, cardboard horns, and wearable cardboard houses and cars.

So much inspiration! I hope you feel the same way! The level of creativity that turned out for the challenge was so overwhelming, I hope everyone feels a great sense of accomplishment from the costumes they created. Tomorrow I'll be posting some reflections about the challenge and welcome your suggestions for next year.

Deep bows to all our judges and to MakeDo Japan for donating MakeDo kits to all the winners of the contest!

Cardboard Costumes of 2012

As you can see from the pictures, the only thing that can keep you from smiling when you're wearing a cardboard costume is the rain!

Cardboard Cowboys by Leelada via Flickr

5 minute Cardboard Petticoat

While I realize not every costume can be best created out of cardboard, I wanted to inspire you with a little idea for some covert cardboard.

At one point I tried to construct a full blown petticoat out of cardboard, but after more than one failure, I thought there must be a better way.....

Surely this is a trick that every mother should have up their sleeve? A kind of Julie Andrews move akin to pulling the drapes off the wall and stitching up a dress, except you'll pull a strip of cardboard out of your recycling and make an ever-puffy twirly skirt.....hopefully while singing?

Just staples and a long strip of cardboard is all you need. Make sure that the corrugations in the cardboard run parallel to the skirt's hem and you'll get a smoother contour.

Cardboard Karma Chameleon

A few more tweaks and this guy's ready to dance!

How are your costumes coming?

We have a little less than a week left!

Can't wait to see YOUR creation! Upload to Flickr or just shoot me an email with your costume photo attached to thecardboardcollectiveblog@gmail.com

Adapting a sewing pattern for cardboard

It's often handy to work from a pattern if you're feeling squeamish about designing a headpiece for your costume from scratch. Sewing patterns are a great option if you can get your hands on an appropriate pattern for the costume you're making. Here I've adapted a simple child's hood pattern into a headpiece that is big enough to fit an adult.

1. Trace your pattern pieces onto cardboard and cut them out.

2. Texturize your cardboard by crumpling it up and twisting it, this will give your cardboard a more leather-like texture and make it easier to work with.

3. Cut thin flexible strips of strips of cardboard about 1.5 to 2 in. wide by whatever length you will need (I like boxes that are similar in weight to pizza boxes) and glue these strips one side at a time to the two pieces that you are trying to join. Regular white glue and clamps or clothespins work great for this.

4. Continue adding your cardboard seams as you put all your pattern pieces together. trim as needed.

5. Now you can begin to modify your piece for your individual costume. Here I added more pieces with the same technique by gluing thin strips of cardboard for the seam and then attaching a forehead and jaw piece.

Links to a few handy patterns suitable for costume making:

Vest pattern by the Mother Huddle

Hood pattern by Fabric link

Children's fitted hood/hat pattern by Martha Stewart Living

Baby cowboy boots pattern by Nap Time Crafters (You could adapt this pattern for making any kind of boot-like shoe covers.)

Some cardboard texture ideas for you...

1. Cardboard spirals are great for cardboard wigs, antennas, or scary egg carton eyeballs that fall out of your glasses.

2. Egg cartons and crates make great bumps, horns, tentacles and nostrils for animal costumes.

3. Braided cardboard, Rapunzel or Boy George are just a few options to get you started.

4. Picket fences can create bones, gladiator bracelets, etc.

5. Corrugated strands separated reveal those cool crimpy parts if you're trying to add new textures.

6. Fan folded cardboard holds it's shape well for bows, fins and wings.

Meet the judges: LiEr of Ikat Bag

If you've poked around on the internet anywhere googling the words "cardboard" and "kids" chances are you've come across LiEr's blog Ikat Bag and her fantastic cardboard creations. She's made everything from telephones to fruit and vegetable stands, light up trains, Barbie carriages, pinatas, dollhouses that have indoor plumbing and heating (well, almost!), tiffin boxes and granny purses all out of cardboard.

Did I mention that she is also a seamstress/tailor, a former physics teacher and school counselor, pattern designer, mother of 3 children and creative genius? Lover of Nutella?

I'm so excited to have LiEr on board judging the costume contest as well as spreading her enthusiasm for all things cardboard! I hope you stop by her blog to check out her amazing collection of projects and great tips for working with cardboard.

Yokoso LiEr!

How to make cardboard bug eyes

These cardboard apple box liners have so much potential. I love their color and texture which works perfectly for insect or reptilian costumes. I've seen these liners in pink, yellow, purple, white and brown. Ask the stockist at your grocery store's produce department if you can take a few home.

This a costume component easily made by any child who can handle scissors, so a perfect start for a kid's first self made costume.

How great would these be for a bed bug costume?

How to make a cardboard beard

A cardboard beard that's long and scraggly......

This project is similar to the cardboard mustache, except that you're gluing cardboard fringe onto a base. I used a rubber band threaded through two holes on the sides of the beard to secure the beard to the face.

A few costume options:

Gnome: add gnome hat

Uncle Sam: add patriotic top hat

Santa on Vacation (hey, it's Halloween!): add mustache and red or green track suit

Dr. Weil: add bald cap and mug of green tea

A cardboard costume can make your Halloween less plastic

This past spring I posted about getting the opportunity to meet some of my eco heroes here in Japan, and now this fall I have had the pleasure to virtually meet another inspiration, Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life. Beth is a passionate author, TED speaker, blogger and activist working to decrease the harmful impacts of plastic on our environment and our health. Her blog and book are filled with lots of practical things you can do to decrease your plastic consumption as well as information about some of the dangers of plastics. Both of these resources are a great place to start if you're thinking about what you, personally, can do to cut down on plastics in your life.

When Beth asked me to write a guest post for her blog about The Cardboard Costume Challenge, I was really excited to put some ideas together. But the best part was seeing this photo of the cardboard Brita filter costume that Beth made as part of her initiative to get Brita to start recycling their water filters. 16,000 signatures later, she succeeded. How wonderful is that?

Beth left me with one parting word of advice when it comes to cardboard costumes: Don't forget to make sure it's a costume you can sit down in!

Hope your costumes are well under way?

Best Halloween Costume Ever.

This is it! Our first EVER creative challenge on The Cardboard Collective!

I hope I can energize all of you cardboard creatives out there to come up with a truly fantastic cardboard Halloween costume this year!

Here's how it works.

2012 Cardboard Costume Contest

1.  Create a cardboard costume that fits into one of 5 categories.

• Kids

• DIY (100% kid made)

• Adults 13 and over

• Hybrid (50-75% cardboard)

• Bicycle Costume

2. Starting October 1st, 2012 you can upload your pictures to the Flickr pool. Include in the comments section which category you would like to participate in.  If you don't use Flickr shoot me an email with permission to upload your photos at thecardboardcollectiveblog@gmail.com

3. The whole point of making a costume is to get all dressed up and parade around, so don't forget to spread the word on your blog, facebook, instagram, pinterest, tumblr and twitter account by plunking down the #cdbdcc hashtag or link to the Cardboard Costume Challenge and inviting the people you know.

5. Check back on November 1st, 2012 for final results and galleries of the most inspiring costumes and hey, maybe you'll even win something cool from our sponsor MakeDo Japan!

Ready to get Started?

Head over to check out some truly inspiring cardboard costumes and get lots of ideas here: Cardboard Costumes Pinterest board

I'll be posting tutorials every week filled with new ideas for working with cardboard as well as give you a glimpse at our own costumes in progress. I'll also be introducing you to our amazing judges throughout the month.

I'm so honored to be sponsored by the coolest cardboard toy ever!

Don't forget to grab your badge here:

Celebrating 50 posts! with Cardboard Pom Poms

It's hard to believe, but nearly a year and 50 posts have passed since the start of The Cardboard Collective!

I'm so thankful to all of you!

The blog has been a space where I have used cardboard to find solutions to all kinds of creative challenges that we face in our little family. You have cheered me on with your comments and kinds words of encouragement to keep innovating and creating.

My home has morphed from a tiny Tokyo apartment into a full-blown cardboard lab!

A place where boxes are stacked in corners to their tipping point, paper bags full of cardboard scraps are stuffed into empty closet spaces, and little paperboard models of future designs wait patiently on my bookshelf.

Where will another year take us?

Hopefully to better control of the cardboard stash, and new ideas! But in the mean time...

Are you ready to Celebrate?????

Aren't these little cardboard fireworks the perfect symbol for all of the dynamo qualities of cardboard?

These cardboard pom-poms are a prime example of what can come of fiddling around with beautiful colors and textures that might be hiding in even your recycling bin.

I love that they look like little bursts of cardboard energy strung neatly in a row.

The tools I used for this project include needle nose pliers, wire (I used large paperclips), and a cardboard cutting tool like a utility knife or these corrugated roofing sheers that I like to use for heavier cardboard projects.

I cut the cardboard kiwi boxes into 1 cm strips and bundled about 30 together with a piece of wire.

After I tightened the wire as much as I could, I started gently bending and fanning the cardboard pieces out, exactly the same way that you would if you were making a pom pom from yarn. As you bend the cardboard you will want to tighten the wire more to help the pom pom maintain it's shape.

Lastly I threaded a piece of paper cording through the middle of the pom pom and just kept adding to my string.

Where are the cardboard hats and kazoos? Well I haven't gotten that far yet, but in the meantime...

Happy 50th everybody!

Here's to another year of making cool cardboard stuff.

Cardboard Office Supplies Holder

Can you tell I'm on an organizing bend? Why shouldn't MOM get a cardboard thing-a-ma-jig every now and then?

Well, here's my newest treasure - a place to stick some of the sharp pointy tools I use so I can keep them away from little, "I know what scissors can do" hands.

It's also a way to use up a lot of scrap cardboard bits that you (or I) might have lying around.

I'd love to show you my gigantic pile of cardboard scrap that I keep moving around to different corners of my apartment, but I'm just not there yet...I know it's become very vogue these days to blog about the imperfections in your life and prove that everything doesn't always look like a well curated Pinterest board. But honestly, isn't that the best part about blogging? The fact that I'm typing with a towel on my head right now, but your seeing all this great cardboard stuff?

I pulled a yellow kiwi box out of my stash for this project and then cut it down to size, carving out two little handles on the sides. I find that a serrated knife does the best job for rounding corners, as I've never been able to cut circles in heavy corrugated cardboard with a utility knife.

You can mash up the cardboard on the inside anyway you like. We've got a random kind of Keith Haring thing going on in there, but it would be cool to make a more structured zig-zag or circular pattern too.

If you do something with this idea, I'd love to see your work! I think there are a lot of places to go with this compressed cardboard in a frame concept. It's super strong! Please send me your photos so we can feature you here on The Cardboard Collective!

OK, today is recycling day so I've GOT to get out there and see what else I can haul back and stuff into that empty space in my closet!

Using Cardboard to Make Easy Toddler Art Stations

When it comes to making art, there are a few challenges we face in our home:

1. We share a small living space.

2. We have a baby in our midst who is prone to trouble and spilling.

3. We want to protect our furniture, favorite stuff, and floors from damage.

4. We want to devote as much time to fun and interesting experiences as we can. (and as little to clean-up, and maintenance as we can)

5. We want to try to solve our problems in frugal, creative and kind-to-the-planet ways.

So, I want to share these two methods that we use in our home for making art projects more spontaneous, less of a chore to cleanup, very versatile, and 100% recyclable!

The first item we use is a kind of art caddy that keeps brushes, paints and water cups organized and spill-safe. They are really quick to make, and very adaptable.

First just gather your supplies: a small cardboard box, pencil, serrated knife, and all of the items that you want to organize in the caddy.

Arrange the items as you would like them, and then just trace around each piece.

Use the serrated knife to cut just inside the area you traced. I left about a 1 mm gap for this project.

Fit your items into the caddy and you're ready to go!

The second item we use is a fold-up cardboard work mat which can double as an easel.

If something spills on the cardboard I can easily wipe up the excess and let the mat dry. We can also let some of our spills decorate the mat to create a whole new piece of art in the process! That's why I think this cardboard mat is a really great solution. It's easy to store and you can recycle it or make a new one when your kids outgrow it. It's also costs only pennies to make. Let's get started!

You'll want to customize this project to the dimensions of the table where your child (or children) works. I originally made my pieces about 8.5 in. in width, but after using the mat, I added two pieces that were about 12 in. in width so that we could incorporate two easel panels that would accommodate a piece of computer paper that was oriented vertically.

When you put the panels together, tape every other seam, then flip the while thing over and tape the remaining seams. This makes the work mat easy to fold up in an accordion - style.

To affix the paper to the easel you have a few options. Here I just used tacks, but you can also use strong magnets on the front and back or a little bit of washi tape.

You could also punch holes in the cardboard and string some elastic through, which would still allow you to fold up the mat without added bulk.

Electra is hard at work on her first homemade gift for grandma's upcoming birthday! A set of hand-painted (+ other interesting stuff she found and glued-on) note cards.

Happy Creating!