Craft with Me is a series of craft book reviews done by our very own NYPL librarians. We pick a craft book currently available within our collection and try a few of the projects to see how feasible they are. Below is our review of Out of the Box by author and model creator, Jemma Westing and Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book written by Clare Beaton and Rudi Haig. 

If you are looking for activities that will keep your little ones busy and use common supplies, then you’re in the right place! Both of these books have great projects that use cardboard and other materials that most families already have on hand such as paint, construction paper, etc.. While you’re at it, why not pair an activity with a book that can help inspire your child’s creativity! 

Note: these projects are intended for grade school children ages 6 and older.

Out of the Box by author and model creator, Jemma Westing; photographer Dave King; illustrator Edward Byrne

Recycle household cardboard into incredible art projects that you can wear, share, and play with. Learn how to build and decorate more than 25 amazing creations, including costumes and castles, gifts and games, puppets and pirate ships.

 

 

 

Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book by Clare Beaton and Rudi Haig; illustrated by Clare Beaton

What can you create with just a cardboard box and some construction paper? Your very own coral reef! Use easy-to-follow directions to make thirteen crafts (and one recipe), each one focused on the ocean. Crafts include fun facts and additional resources, giving covert learning opportunities for your little explorer and reducing screentime.

 

Pirate Ship Project: Intermediate Level

From: Out of the Box

If you have some spare cereal boxes, you can make your own fleet of swashbuckling pirate ships! Or regular ships. Either way! The instructions were very easy to follow, but I did alter some of the components. I happened to have some bamboo skewers on hand which I used for the posts. I used leftover pieces of the cereal box for the lower flags, but I cut the upper flags out of a brown paper bag because it was more pliable. 

The cereal box took several coats of paint to cover up completely (even with the dark brown), so if you were to make this with a lighter color just be aware that you will probably spend half a tube of paint just on coverage. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review:

This is a relatively easy project for families with children. If you are not painting the cereal box then this is a fun afternoon project, but because of how many coats it needed and how long it takes for the paint to dry this might turn into a two-day project. The most difficult part was cutting the shapes into the box because I had to use an x-acto knife rather than scissors, so an adult would need to be on hand for that part. Kids will have fun deciding how to decorate and design their ship. If your kids need design inspiration, check out some of these awesome pirate books:

Pirate written by Richard Platt; photographed by Tina Chambers
Be an eyewitness to the bloodthirsty activities of pirates, from the barbarous corsairs of the Mediterranean to the cutthroat buccaneers of the Spanish Main.

Pirate Chicken: All Hens on Deck words by Brian Yanish; pictures by Jess Pauwels
Barnyard chicken Lily realizes her dream of becoming a pirate but when she turns into the feared Redfoot, her crew stages a mutiny and Lily may have to "squawk the plank."

Adventure Castle: Easy to Intermediate Level

From: Out of the Box 

This is a project you can really have fun with, especially if your little ones are fans of fantasy and adventure. I decided to go with a unicorn dream theme because I happened to have these unicorn stickers on hand and a bunch of turquoise paint. The box I used as the main castle was not made out of plain cardboard, so it needed multiple coats of paint. This could be a single afternoon or weekend project depending on the type of paint and cardboard that you are using. 

Jemma’s instructions are really easy to follow and easy to modify for your own needs. I happened to have two cardboard tubes, so I added those to the front of the castle as pillars. I used scrapbook paper for the flags, and I used my lever punches to create the designs on the flags. The unicorns, flowers, and starbursts came from a bag of foam stickers that I found in a drawer. If you let your supplies and your imagination guide you as well as Jemma’s instructions, then you’re sure to have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review:

If you have a bunch of cardboard lying around and some bored kids, then this is the project to let them loose on. Honestly, the most difficult part for me was making the tops of the towers out of paper. Your castle can be as big or as small as you want. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these titles:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Books

Journey by Aaron Becker
Using a red marker, a young girl draws a door on her bedroom wall and through it enters another world where she experiences many adventures, including being captured by an evil emperor.

The Very Last Castle words by Travis Jonker; pictures by Mark Pett
Ibb, curious about the lone castle in her town, forms a long-distant friendship with the guard and, despite warnings there is something fearful inside, accepts his invitation to enter

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Eldest of three sisters in a land where it is considered to be a misfortune, Sophie is resigned to her fate as a hat shop apprentice until a witch turns her into an old woman and she finds herself in the castle of the greatly feared wizard Howl.

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
Eleven-year-old Princess Celie lives with her parents, the king and queen, and her brothers and sister at Castle Glower, which adds rooms or stairways or secret passageways most every Tuesday, and when the king and queen are ambushed while travelling, it is up to Celie--the castle's favorite--with her secret knowledge of its never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom.  

Out of the Box and Toilet-Paper Tube Crab from Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book: Easy Level

This is basically a shoebox diorama that you can cater to your child’s favorite sea critters. I found some foam fish stickers in a drawer and glued them to string instead of following Jemma’s instructions. The toilet-paper tube crabs were amazingly easy and came out so cute! They took about two hours because they took a few coats of paint. My favorite part was probably creating the coral out of egg cartons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review:

This is an easy afternoon project for little marine biologists in training. If you have glow in the dark paint, then you can really make this project pop. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's Visit the Ocean by Jennifer Boothroyd
The ocean is the largest biome on Earth. Animals live all over the ocean—from the sunlit surface layer down to the deep, dark ocean floor. But how do plants grow deep underwater? And what can people do to help keep this biome safe? Read this book to find out!

Ocean: Secrets of the Deep text by Sabrina Weiss; illustrations by Giulia de Amicis
In this book readers are taken on a journey from the water’s surface to the deepest, darkest depths of the oceans. 

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist written by Jess Keating; illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
Chronicles the life and career of Eugenie Clark, an icthyologist who overcame many obstacles to study and dispel myths about sharks, the creatures she loved so much.

Related blog post: Women in Science: Pioneers of the Natural World

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Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.