Cardboard Castle

For Etta's 6th birthday party, I made a castle out of cardboard boxes. I first saw the idea here and that blogger first saw the idea here. I used both blogs as reference for Etta's castle.

I had NO problem finding boxes as we had JUST moved into the apartment and had boxes a plenty! All but one of my boxes were Lowes moving boxes (the other one arrived at our doorstep via UPS with some supplies for Etta's party).

So, reminder: we live in an apartment now. I worked on the castle for almost two weeks during nap times and after the kids went to bed at night. I did not lash the boxes together until after we arrived at the Playhouse so I could set the castle up and work on it and then "nest" them so they would take up less space.

I went to Lowes to look for paint and accidentally stumbled upon the shelf that contained the "oops" discount paints and stains and found three perfect colors for $2.00 and $2.50 a can. I also bought one small paint sample for $2.50. I also bought a plastic drop cloth, a bunch of cheap "chip" paint brushes, one small paint roller and a couple rolls of thick masking tape because I figured it would take the paint better than a clear packing tape. Also, I needed zip ties.

I set all of the boxes up and made a plan for how I wanted the castle to lay out.

Then, I cut out the battlements (had to look that up on google) on the top and reinforced with an extra strip of cardboard using masking tape.

Also, I cut out windows and tunnel entrance/exits.

I learned quickly, thanks to my "product testers", that I needed to reinforce my drawbridge door. So, I cut out a couple pieces of cardboard and hot glued them to the inside of the door. I used jute to create a door pull so they could close it from the inside.

I decided somewhere along the way that I needed two tunnels coming off of the back for extra support (and extra fun).

Then, I cut out "cobble stones" and hot glued them around the drawbridge entrance.

Then, I painted and painted and painted. Working on it as I could (mostly late at night). I got a little lazy and didn't paint the back.

I made curtains out of cardboard that I painted and hot glued to the inside and I cut some little flags out of colorful felt and hot glued them to a long piece of jute string to help complete the look.

And the final touch to the castle was painting shutters for the outer windows. I wanted to do something with the bottom windows, but I ran out of time and left them plain.

Mom and Bill went up to GiGi's LATE Saturday to help me get the castle set up so we wouldn't have to fool with it on party day. I ordered a snowy backdrop from an online party supply store and we cut it to fit. I also hung some white tissue poms and we added some white balloons on party day.

(View from behind)

I was pretty proud of my creation and I was actually a little disappointed that we only used it for a few hours one day and we don't have a big play room anymore so we couldn't take it home and I didn't want to leave it in the Playhosue for too long because we're tight on space there. So, I left it in the Playhouse for a week so anyone who came to visit could play with it and then I found a "home" for it with Etta's SLP, Ms. Kristi after she excitedly told me that they were planning to do an "Olaf in the Summertime" theme during the July two-week Extended School Year session (which Etta will be attending) and I excitedly offered the castle for them to use! So, YAY for it getting more use!