Corrugated Castle

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Unleash your imagination and you can transform any size box to an extraordinary structure

By Laura C. Martin

You Will Need:

• Medium-sized cardboard box
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Coloured marker
• 4 cardboard paper towel tubes
• Acrylic paints
• Damp kitchen sponge cut into small
• Squares
• Small nail
• String or thin cording

Instructions:

1. Cut off the upper flaps of the box, then cut notches in the top of the castle walls. Use the colored marker to draw on windows and a drawbridge door.

2. Ask an adult to help you cut through the cardboard along the sides and top of the drawbridge door, but not the bottom, so that the door opens out.

3. Starting from the bottom of each paper towel tube, cut a slit in the front of the tube that is the same length as the height of your castle wall. Turn the tube a quarter turn and cut a matching slit in the side of the tube.

4. Slide the tube “turrets” down onto the castle corners, as shown, so that the bottoms rest on the floor of the box.

5. Dip the edge of a sponge cube into acrylic paint (use a different one for each color) and use it to stamp castle stones on the walls, under the windows for sills, and around the drawbridge door. You don’t have to cover the whole castle; clusters of two or three stones stamped here and there will be enough to create the effect.

6. When the paint is dry, accent the stones by outlining them with the colored marker.

7. Use a small nail to poke two holes through the upper sides of the door and two holes through the castle wall just above and to the sides of the door. Thread one piece of string through the holes on the left and another piece through the holes on the right, as shown, knotting the ends to keep them from pulling back through.

8. For the finishing touch, use a piece of recycled gift wrap or colored paper to line the floor of your castle.

Excerpted from Recycled Crafts Box: Sock Puppets, cardboard castles, bottle bugs & 37 more earth-friendly projects & activities you can create.  Copyright (c) 2004 by Laura C. Martin. Excerpted with permission of Storey Publishing.