How to make our own recycled cardboard castle!

There are days that invite you to stay home, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of it to live new experiences. Every corner and every room can be turned into settings for magical and fun adventures. All it takes is one ingredient – a little imagination.

We are aware that we cannot put limits on our creativity and that is why we are not afraid to sing, jump, shout, get dirty, paint our hands with markers or that the dining room of the house is for a few moments full of pieces of colored cardboard and newspaper. Creative play is one of the best tools we have had since kids to learn how to express our way of seeing the world.

At Elis Elis we always want to be part of your daily adventures and that is why we bring you some ideas to create new worlds by making crafts.

We start with a fun and entertaining proposal, perfect for a long afternoon with family or a group of friends. And remember! This activity should be done under the supervision of an adult to prevent getting harmed. 

Do you have cardboard boxes and rolls of toilet paper piled up in the recycling bin? Do you dare to turn them into a fantasy castle and its inhabitants?

The first thing to do is pick up the material. Go around your house and ask your parents for help collecting as many empty toilet paper boxes and rolls as possible.

Let’s imagine a castle… and make it a reality!

You will need: Medium or large cardboard boxes, scissors, glue or American tape and paint.

1. Choose the largest box you have to build the castle. The bigger it is, the easier it will be to work. And if it’s really huge, you might even fit inside!
2. Cut the flaps from the top and reinforce the corners with glue or American tape so that the fortress does not bend.
3. Trim the towers and battlements: A good castle must be protected! To do this, simulate the structures by cutting the top of the box with scissors or a cutter.
4. Build bridges: With rectangular pieces from other boxes, you can design bridges, cut a front piece of the box to create a door, and glue the bridge to it. You can even add a couple of ropes to make the bridge draw!
5. Don’t forget about the doors and windows so that princesses, knights, monsters or any kind of beast can move around the castle. With scissors or a cutter you can create all the openings you want.
6. Decorate the fortress. You can paint it on the outside, on the inside, add stickers or letters… Total creativity!

Who will live in this castle?

Now that you have the castle, we need to create the characters that will live there. We will not set limits either: there are all kinds of castles, and who knows if we can find knights, princesses, cooks, fairies, wizards, dragons, dogs, ghosts, mices, monkeys… or elephants!

You will need: Rolls of toilet paper, glue, paint and colored paper.

1. Decide on body color. Once you’ve decided what color your character’s body should be, paint the roll of paper or glue a piece of paper of the color you’ve chosen all around.
2. Create the clothes with the colored papers and stick them on top of the character’s body.
3. Draw the eyes and mouth with paints, or stick buttons on them, if you have any.
4. Finally, you can stick hair made with colored threads, mustaches, cotton balls or draw all kinds of accessories.

With each box and roll of paper that you have used, you will have slightly reduced the waste we generate by giving them a second life that will also be a lot of fun! At the end, you will have your own castle and a whole world of unique characters. Who knows what adventures they will have?

If you want to share pictures of your castle and its inhabitants with us, we’d love to see them!