So my Mum is a genius…not sure if I’ve mentioned that fact here before. If you want to see a picture of her pretty little face then click the following link to see a craft that she made with my kids: DIY Scarecrow. We took a little holiday with my parents in November, renting a cottage together. It was the first time we’d gotten to hug and snuggle them since the previous February, so it was immensely wonderful!

I packed SO MANY activities for this vacation, knowing that it would be cold and snowy: colouring, polymer clay, shrink art, games, painting, and on and on it went. My mum, not to be outdone, had her own tricks up her sleeve. One included these supplies:

• a bunch of cardboard boxes (moving sizes: mostly 2 cube and 4 cube)
• a silver bowl
• permanent markers
• moving tape
• play kitchen items (food and accessories)
• aprons
• a faucet…seriously. She brought a faucet.

My mum kept saying that she brought the girls a kitchen to play with, but I didn’t really know what she was talking about, and so I didn’t really give it much thought. One of the days she pulled out all of the boxes she brought and had me assemble all them while she made supper (God bless her!).

Then she started showing me what she meant. This is the fridge:

We put in a shelf with moving tape and made doors, complete with a clip on the top to hold the doors closed. My mum also took things from the real cottage kitchen for them to use, like those three milk jugs. (It gets way better from here!😄)

She told me to make a stove:

I made stove rings with the permanent marker, my grand artistry got a little better with each one 🤦‍♀️. man! drawing circles is tricky!

I used empty Oikos yogurt containers from the recycling bin to be the knobs, and wrote “Hi”, “Med”, “Low”, and “Off” with permanent marker. The knobs really turn so the arrow can point to the temperature you want. No big deal.

We made an oven door by cutting a giant rectangle in the front of the box, and then cutting two horizontal slits near the top to pop out a little handle. It looks like I cut the rectangle all the way around, but I mostly scored that bottom line to make it fold in a straight-ish line.

…the kitchen sink! 😂😂😂 We cut a hole in the top of the box big enough for the bowl to sit in. Mum even had an extra faucet that was going to be part of a Christmas present DIY, so she brought that along, too! What a wonder she is! We cut the appropriate Xs to fit the faucet pipes (Tip: if you need small holes it’s much easier to cut small Xs and then shove the mini triangles in, creating a small hole, rather than trying to maneuver your knife in a small circle), and then we needed to reinforce the cardboard top with tape and cardboard inside because the faucet was so heavy – but it worked!

Jessica’s Tip: If you need to make small holes in cardboard, rather than trying to maneuver your knife in a small circle, it’s much easier to cut small Xs and then push the mini triangles in.

– But First We Craft –

We cut 3 out of 4 sides of a rectangle to make the cupboard under the sink. We cut a little hole in the door (also starting with an X) instead of a door handle. This worked so well!

When we were assembling all the pieces:

• Fridge
• Stove
• Sink

we noticed that there was absolutely nowhere for them to cook or stack their washed dishes, so we needed to make some counter space. We stacked two smaller boxes and put them in between the sink and stove for one counter, and placed another cupboard style box to the left of the stove. This completed their portable Cardboard Box Kitchen:

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The girls spent H O U R S in this kitchen (and sometimes their brother joined them!)! It took us less than an hour to make, and it was so much fun. We were killing ourselves laughing at all our great ideas. I was also killing myself laughing at how much my Mum brought for this. My dad just rolled his eyes at the quantity, and my husband was speechless. If you like this craft and want another awesome cardboard box craft you should DEFINITELY take a look at my Cardboard Play House. If you’re having a staycation, trying to get over the lockdown blues, or are going on vacation and don’t know how you’re going to keep your little ones entertained, this is the craft for you! It helps along imaginative play, is inexpensive and so darn cute! See, I told you my Mum is a genius😉.