5 DIY Toys You Can Make With a Shoebox | Art Projects for Kids

Welcome back to Burning Daylight. I am Maria Antoinette. Am I the only one who collects shoeboxes? Hopefully I'm not because today I have five amazing kid activities that we are going to make out of shoeboxes. The first thing that we are going to create is a car wash. Garrison loves cars. I just felt like this would be the perfect activity for him. He incorporates one of his favorite toys and it's super easy to make. Start off by painting your box. Cut out a square on both sides for your entrance and your exit. We will be using toilet paper rolls as our base for our rotating brushes inside of the car wash. Simply take some felt, cut it upwards to get that nice solid fringe. We're going to take our glue gun. This actually feels like the material they use in a car wash too. And repeat. For this next one, we're still using a toilet paper roll, but we are covering it in felt. And then we're going to take some scrap fringe that I just had from a project. We're just going to glue that on. Now this is our rotating brush that's going to go from the top of the vehicle. We're going to use a doll to let that rotate on. Put two holes on the side of the box. So for our last two toilet paper rolls wrapped in aluminum foil, we're going to use another assortment of fringe. Because if you've ever gone through a car wash, we know there's all kinds of brushes in there. We want this to look as real as possible. We glue all of these down. We're going to take our pipe cleaner, simply fold it in half, twist it, give it a little bit of texture. Now let's get our doorway covered. Same concept we used on the first rotating washers. We cut in a fringe effect, glue the orange and the blue together. And then we're going to glue it to the box. And for our finishing touches, I have some circles cut out of felt that are going to look great as bubbles on the side. Super simple project with items you already have around your house, and your kid is going to be entertained, we pray, for at least an hour. So for our second shoebox activity, this is ideal for your little rocker. You're building their own guitar. How awesome is this? Super cute, super easy. Starting with a pre-painted box, I'm going to find something that gives me the circle cut out, which is where the sound is going to come from. With my utility knife, I'm going to go ahead and cut out my circle. Next, we are going to build in our bridge and our nut. I know the nut is normally on the neck, but you know, this is a toy. Work with what you got. Okay, let's get these glued down to the body of our guitar. All right, we're going to go ahead and stretch out our rubber bands. So these are our strings. You guys hear the sound already coming together? I don't think I have a career in being a luther, but I'm doing my thing on this guitar. Next, we're going to add our tuners to the neck of our guitar. We take a pencil, you're going to go ahead and poke all the way through. You're going to take your pipe cleaner, simply cut that in half, insert on both sides. It's starting to look kind of like the neck of a guitar. And repeat on the other side. Final step, attaching our neck to our body. And here we have Garrison's personal guitar. You guys, I cannot wait for him to serenade me. I just can't wait. It's going to be so cute. This next project is ideal for your sous chef. This is our DIY shoebox stove. Let's get into it. We're going to start with a shoebox that's been pre-painted, including the inside of the lid. This is important. Starting with our duct tape, you can use any type of design you want. Think backsplash. You only need to do three rolls, you don't even have to do the whole inside. Next, we're going to do our clock. I'm going to use some thick yarn that I had around the house. I'm going to glue as I coil. Once we get the clock all in place and coiled, we glue it down and we're going to take our pipe cleaner to make our hands on our clock. To take a push pin and secure that into place. Now let's build out our range and stove area. I'm going to take my pipe cleaner and fold it in half, matching the width of the aluminum foil that I have cut out for my stove. Glue down our pipe cleaner as the handle. Now for your knobs, you can use lid to any type of beverage, salad dressing, anything like that. Spray paint them and glue them on. And our final step is gluing down our range. Use felt, cut out circles, and you have exactly what you need. I cannot wait to see what Garrison cooks up next. For our next box, we are going to be making a portable puppet theater. I really like it. Me too. Let's get started. Now you guys can thank me later for this one, but not only am I going to show you how to repurpose your shoe box, I'm also going to tell you how to repurpose that extra wrapping paper. You know, that end that you never use. We're going to use it in this project. So our first step is going to be cutting out the frame for our theater. And now we're going to cut in our hole where our puppets will go into. Now that we have both of our holes cut into our box, let's get our wrapping paper on the top. I'm going to put a little bit of hot glue on here just so I can prevent the paper from moving while I wrap it. Now I'm going to go ahead and cut a hole into the center and get this paper wrapped around this other edge. Our next step is going to be attaching our neck strap. And all you need to do now is grab your favorite puppets, and it's a puppet show. Let's get into our last box. This last one is a throwback to the marble maze. You know, we used to play with those. Am I telling my age here? Anyway, all you're going to need for this is the lid to your shoe box, some straws, and a high bouncing ball. I'm going to be taking a boot shoe box. Yes, because it's larger and it's wider. You're going to pre-paint it, and you can just put whatever backdrop you want on the inside of the lid. I'm going to cut my straws into various lengths and glue them down to make a maze. Safety check. This could be a choke hazard for small children. So use your best judgment. And there you have it. I can't wait to see if Garrison is up to the challenge. If not, me and his father are going to have a blast playing this. For more kid-friendly crafts, make sure you like and subscribe, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.