Not Your Ordinary Arts & Crafts

Just like it’s important for Dads to get on the tools or watch sports during the weekend, it’s also important for Dads to get on the arts and craft with the little ones every now and again. 

Let’s make one thing clear, when we say arts and crafts, we don’t just mean scrapbooking and finger-painting. Arts and crafts can involve building or constructing big toys too. As in, assembling things with duct tape, things that won’t stick to the fridge. You can even get super creative and build some of your own games, but we’ll get to that later.

Dads getting involved with arts and crafts can also be a fun way to teach kids basic engineering skills and how to use simplistic materials to build adventure inspiring toys, cool gadgets or entertaining games. 

You’d be amazed at what you can build with some general household items, duct tape, cardboard and creative thinking. Best of all is that even if you don’t have any cardboard lying around, you can head to your local Bunnings Warehouse and collect cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes for free. 

So here are a few simple ideas to get even the most macho of Dads excited about an arts and crafts day at home.

Cardboard Box Tank

gerrydelacruz1 – made this masterpiece!

Tell any young boy that today’s mission is building a cardboard tank, you’ve got his attention for the rest of the day, and you’ve got him busy for the rest of the week. All you need to build this piece of heavy machinery is cardboard, duct tape and patience. Once you’ve completed building the frame, you can even leave the younger troops to decorate and design the inside, potentially adding texter created buttons, switches and gauges. Fair warning – this is not an arts and craft project for the light hearted!

Cardboard Maze Labyrinth

Check out here for more on design and photo credit.

If you are a little tighter on space and don’t necessarily want half of your living room occupied by the tank, this is a very easy way to test your arts and craft skills. All you need for this is carboard, scissors, glue (even tape or a glue stick will do) and a marble. 

You can make the marble maze as simple or as complex as you like, potentially even starting off simple and adding more obstacles later on. Another benefit to the maze labyrinth is that you could put it away after everyone is finished having fun and pull it back out of the cupboard two weeks later. 

Cardboard Pizza Oven

If you want to spice up your arts and craft game, then this cardboard pizza oven makes for a very entertaining build. Spend the morning building the oven and the afternoon placing orders and enjoying the fine creations of paper thin pizzas topped with cut-out garnishes. The only ingredients you need are a cardboard box or old shoebox, scissors and some colourful paper to make this oven. Being arguably the simplest of the three, if you are looking for something more difficult, you could try making a stovetop and microwave to complete the kitchen set.  Another great idea if the thought of having an army in the house isn’t one that excites you.