Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Royal Castle (made from trash)

Have I mentioned that we have been hit with the princess bug pretty hard over here? I mean, I let Anastasia watch Snow White, and somehow she knows EVERY disney princess by name, will only wear dresses that twirl (like a princess), and has a castle at the top of her Christmas wish list. It was unavoidable, I believe, as every girl her age is the exact same way! But that is beside the point of this post, this post is to say, even poor peasant children can have a royal castle to play with.
The construction was quite easy, I just used about 4 cereal boxes, ripped out the glued seam of each of them so you have one flat piece of cardboard, cut the long piece in half and cut a castle shape along the lengthier side. Then you piece them together using the folds of the box to shape the bottom, and add a piece in the middle as the floor and paint! I used tacky glue, and held things in place with paper clips. Anastasia and I painted together while Isabel napped and she has been playing with it ever since it dried! Next time, I might make it double layers of cereal boxes to make it a bit sturdier and easier to paint. The shiny side was inside, and it took several thick coats... and I can still see faint glimses of cheerios coming through. We will see how long it lasts! It would be nice if we could stretch its life to Christmas! I am still in a dilemma as what to do about a castle, because Anastasia builds her own castles out of her blocks, and now we make them out of cereal boxes, because we don't have one. And that seems more creative and fun than the cute little castles out there. And Haba makes some really beautiful castle blocks. Thank goodness there are 5 months until Christmas to work things out with Father Christmas...

No comments: