I am Mandy, a first time single mom who absolutely ADORES her little girl! Before I had my daughter I was lost, and having her gave me a place in this world to make a difference (even if it's just the difference between a yogurt on my curtains, or crayons on the walls!) She helped me go from always bored, to always busy and ALWAYS tired! I wouldn't change it for the world. I will take R<3 over boredom any day!
My intentions behind starting a blog are simply to share whatever randomness comes to mind, on whatever day I may find a free moment! R<3 visits her father a couple days over this weekend, so I have had plenty of free time to finally sit down, find something to write about and actually start typing!
I am always trying to find new and exciting things to keep her attention. Being a little hyper thing, toys get old fast. Even if there is a mountain of them to chose from! Of all the toys she does have, the one thing I still haven't managed to get for her are blocks. Every time I start shopping for some, they are either too small, too expensive, or just not what I had in mind. I spend entirely too many after bedtime hours searching Pinterest for ideas and stumbled across pin that led me to a blog post by Turner Toys, about making over-sized blocks out of cardboard boxes.
At the very moment I opened the blog and started reading I had an instant moment oh "Ah-ha!" as well as "Duh!" I was so excited to make these, since I have an abundance of cube boxes that I use to ship shop orders. I also felt pretty lame for not having thought of this months ago!
Okay, enough dawdling, grab your supplies and get ready!
What you will need:
Hot glue and six boxes, taped shut. I used 7x7x7 cube boxes from Uline but you can get some free priority mail shippers from USPS online. They wont be exactly square, but hey, free is always good!
Three squares of felt in various colors, cut to fit one side of three boxes, and hot glued into place.
Three crumpled piece of foil.
Okay, so mine are not exactly 'squares' per say, but hey, you get the point...right? Feel free to make your foil fit a bit better if you like! Be sure to use caution when gluing these on! It WILL get hot from the glue!
Six strips of plastic canvas. I cut down two pieces of round canvas I had stashed in a craft drawer, but you can use what you have. If I had some square canvas, I would have probably cut it to fit like I did the felt. It is up to you, and what you have on hand! After gluing these on, I put some more around the out side of the canvas to keep her from getting scratched from the sharp edges.
Six peel and stick shipping label pages. I used some that I got from Ebay, there are two stickers per 8.5in.x11in. page. One sticker was used for the shapes, and one for each letter of her first name. I used these to hide the not so pretty taped flaps. I was originally going to use squares cut from card stock, until I remembered I had these. It made things so much easier. Peel and stick is a mom's best friend (besides her daughter of course!)
And finally...
A curious toddler!
R<3 had so much fun with these! She stacked:
When they fell...
She stacked again!
We had such a blast with these, and yes, I said 'we'! I moved the boxes into the living room where she had me stack, and she knocked them down. Eventually her curiosity got to her and she started picking at the foil (she found a tear, oops!) so after I solved it with a little packing tape, I decided to bring out the crayons and let her add a few decorations of her own. She, of course, let mommy help color as well, and I think we did an amazing job...
What do you think? A couple of Picassos right?
