We’re getting ready for the Carnival of Junk Play on Friday 3rd December!
What do you think of our riding school? We have stables, jumps, a daisy filled paddock and some prize winning rosettes – and all made for free using re-cycled materials from our beloved making box. B has been off school ill this week and we needed a good ‘sitting down’ activity to keep us busy and cheer us up – and this is what we made. It was a totally spontaneous project, put together after a rummage through the junk box to see what materials we could find.
The base is made from a big piece of cardboard from a packing box, which happened to have a circular shape marked out in the centre which seemed to say ‘paddock’! The jump is made from two Smarties tubes, turned inside out, with a wooden skewer, snapped in half and poked through the tubes to make the cross bars.
The stables are made from tissue boxes, and the one on the end which has proper stable doors is made from a teabag box. We covered them in sugar paper, held in place with sticky tape – as you know we can’t wait for glue to dry when we want to get playing. The prize winning rosettes are made from little gift bows salvaged from some presents, with a ribbon made from sugar paper.
We have a bucket with a pipe-cleaner handle, wool for straw and a biscuit tray cut up and stuck inside each stable to make a feeding trough (there’s probably a proper horsey word for that isn’t there?) The bunting is made from wool, old wrapping paper and held up on wooden skewers. And the paddock was painted with poster paint, sprinkled with a little glitter while it was still wet, and with some daisies (cut from a remnant of edging from my sewing basket) glued on.
Not all our junk models are this grand – L’s boat was very simple, but they both sum up what I love best about junk modelling:
it’s recycled, it costs nothing, it’s creative and it’s makes a toy with lots more play value to it.
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Aaaah this is SO cute and TAKES ME BACK!!!
Maggy
Thanks Maggy x
Oh, I’m so going to come! :)))
Great Michelle – thanks for joining in 🙂
Very cute! Isn’t it fun to make toys from cardboard?
Thanks Maryanne – we do love a bit of cardboard up-cycling 😉
How fun! I’m not crafty at all but I hope when my little one gets older we can play like this. I love the fact you were spending all that time together instead of just buying something from the store. Very cool!
Thanks Julia – B really enjoyed making it together. She said ‘I’m having the best day ever’, which is pretty good going when she wasn’t feeling well. 🙂
Great,I love it! This summer we made a house of cardboard for my daughter,and few days ago I made her a car.She loves to play with home made toys so I sew a lot for her,and together we glue and draw.We have alot of cardboard puppets,theater puppets,and no junk is junk for us! And this stable is adorable.And since she loves horses most of all,we’ll have to make something like that.I allready have a vision! 🙂
Huana, they sound fantastic – we’d like to come and play at your house!!
Oh i love this idea. I am going to start sorting through my recycled bit immediately and we Will have to give it a bash at the weekend
How lovely! My favourite crafts are made of recycled bits and pieces so count me in for the Carnival of Junk Play!
Oh, I absolutely LOVE it! It looks so cute nad fun to play with!
I`ll show it to my daughter tomorrow, because it`s too late at the moment. I´m sure she would love to start making her own horse riding stables straight away 😀
Thanks for entering this in Make A Friend Friday, I hope the idea works and lots of people come by 🙂
This looks like fun! I’m a big fan of getting kids to make things from cardboard at (high)school, it’s amazing what you can do with an old box!
So cute! Making cardboard buildings is always a hit with children. Thanks for sharing.
Colleen:)
Thanks for stopping by Colleen.
I love it! I love that it was free and is made from recycled materials.
Yo have inspired me to open up our box of recycled stuff thisarvo to see what we can create.
Off to check out your Carnival of Junk Play. What a great idea.
Have fun Tricia – hope you’ll come and show us what you made in our Junk Carnival.
Oh my goodness my girls would adore this! I must show them these photos tomorrow because I am sure they’d love to make something similar for their ponies! I love your mini bunting too!
Wow. That’s my weekend sorted,then.
Hi Coffee Lady – this would compliment your doll’s house very well I think!
We have car garage made from a box that JDaniel loves. These stables are wonderful.
Please stop by and see what we were up to this week. https://www.jdaniel4smom.com/2010/11/readexplorelearn-thanks-giving.html
On my way over to see JDaniel4’s Mom. 🙂
Looks great 🙂
Well, our horse riding stables are ready 🙂 Will post photos later. And again, thanks for the idea!
This is so very fascinating how detailed you got in your junk modeling. It makes me want to give it a try – thanks for inspiration.
This is awesome….I think I would have liked to play too:)
Wow! That is awesome! Thanks for linking up!
Thanks Activity Mom – amazing what you can make from a load of junk!
Thank you so much for sharing this idea with our readers.
A pleasure JDaniels4’s Mom 🙂
I love it! We just happen to have a TON of my little ponies and a BUNCH of tissue boxes!
Well Jill – go for it!!