Busy Hands: Cereal Box Parking Garage

Any toy or activity involving cars is always a hit with Little Dude. So, we've made our own Cardboard Bus and done a Car Wash. Then, I saw this really cool parking garage made from cereal boxes on Facebook and knew I had to try it! The only problem was that the person who shared it on Facebook didn't link to the original source and the watermark had been cropped out of the photo. That was such a shame because I didn't want to make this craft without crediting the original author. So, my request to everyone reading this is - please feel free to share a blogger's ideas, but please also remember to credit them and link to the original source. I had to do a reverse image search and then I was lead to the wonderful blog, Frugal Fun for Boys, in which Sarah made this original Cereal Box Parking Garage. She in turn got this idea from a magazine, but I'm glad she blogged about it!

Now, here's my version of the garage with only a few modifications. I love the two-tiered style of this garage, and I wanted to make a lot of entries and ramps for playing with cars.

Look, if you are serious about doing home crafts, don't throw away anything made of cardboard! There's always something you can do with it. Home made toys don't last as long as store bought ones, but they aren't any less fun for children, and they get bored of them pretty quickly anyway.

Here's what you need to make the Cereal Box Parking Garage:

2 cereal boxes
4 toilet paper roll tubes or 2 kitchen roll tubes cut in half
White glue
Cellotape
Scissors or a paper cutter

Here's how you can make it:

1. Take one cereal box and remove one side and the bottom. Make a cut on the top, which works as an 'entry' for cars. Don't discard the cut out cardboard of this box.

2. Use glue to stick the four rolls on to the corners of the box.

3. Now take the other cereal box and cut one side three-fourths of the way.

4. Remove the bottom side, and make a 'window' square on the top side.

5. Cut a strip to make a ramp on this second box.

6. From the cut out of the first box, cut a long strip and tape or stick it to the window of the second box. This is your first ramp.

7. Use the remaining cut out cardboard to make two long strips and glue them vertically on the two rolls. This will make the parking garage sturdy.

8. Now glue the second box on the first one so your two levels are ready.

9. Fold down the other strip to make the second ramp and your cereal box parking garage is done and ready to use!

You can always decorate this garage with coloured paper, but it serves its purpose and won't last that long anyway, so I didn't do it. But I'm happy to say that since we made this last week, Little Dude has been playing with his parking garage every day, and it has proved to be surprisingly durable!

Hope you have fun making this Cereal Box Parking Garage for your car-loving kids.

You can also try this simpler Cereal Box Ball Game we made earlier.

(Busy Hands is a series about activities and craft you can do with toddlers and young children).


This post has been linked to:
Let Kids Be Kids // Tuesday Turtorials