Cool Mom Picks: Keen on Cardboard

Keen on Cardboard

Incredibly versatile and often begging to be decorated, cardboard toys are some of our kids' favorites. Plus, when they outgrow them (or leave them out in the rain), they're recyclable!

Curated by Cool Mom Picks on October 27, 2012 9:05 PM

Special delivery: awesome DIY cardboard toys for kids

Metamorphic Toys is a green toy company that provides kids creative freedom by enabling their imaginations through design. The strongest of the bunch is definitely the DIY cardboard mailbox.

Get crafty, young grasshopper, with 3D puzzle sculptures

The cooler weather is setting in, so I'm already on the hunt for inside activities that will save my hide come winter. My stockpile of crafts is one of my most precious resources, and I admit I'm pretty picky about what crafty goodness makes the grade at our house.

Box Play Stickers turn trash into recycled toy treasure

I've always been envious of those crafty upcycle types who can turn a cardboard box or egg carton into an adorable toy or trinket holder. But now that I've discovered these seriously adorable stickers, that's all about to change.

A cardboard play town perfect for kids, and rebels who like turquoise houses.

Between the heatwaves and the crazy downpours, I feel like we've been getting more use out of our creative indoor toys this summer than our scooters. And now here's one more that I'm just smitten with.

Ooh la la! Quelle playhouse!

Qu'est-ce que c'est? Why it's only the sweetest cardboard play structure I've ever laid eyes on. Okay, I've only laid eyes on it online, but still. I think my children need this thing, stat.

4 great craft gifts for kids. Instructions optional.

Maybe it's because I am so lacking in the artistic/crafty gene, but I've always preferred arts-and-craft kits that call for a heavy dose of imagination.

The kinder, gentler (and recyclable!) robot toy

My son, like so many kids, has a thing for robots, but the first few realistic robot toys he received were greeted with suspicion and trepidation: Why are those eyes blinking?

Cardboard blocks - My kids' current obsession

Every week at my daughter's violin lesson, my kids would head straight for the cardboard brick building blocks and play quietly for a solid 30 minutes.

Keelhauled by cardboard

Cardboard cottages are more common than refrigerator boxes these days, and cardboard castles are no longer hard-to-find real estate.

Boys like play castles too, ya know.

In a house full of girls, my son is used to playing with pink ponies and pretty castles. Really, I'm all for it. But it is nice to find pretend toys that are a little more gender neutral too.

This schoolhouse rocks

Today I was so desperate for a new project to pull the tiny whiners off my knees that I gave them a huge cardboard box and some Sharpies.

A castle of one's own

Almost every day, we drive by a castle. No, really-- it's in a field near our house, and the moat is a swimming pool, and the iron fence is guarded by concrete dwarves painted in garish colors. I can't make stuff like that up.

MYO Princess Story

So my girls have grown to like princesses just as everyone promised me they would. It's their genetic imperative and I am powerless to resist it. Uncle, uncle! I give in!

Down on the cardboard farm

My kids are still completely obsessed with the Calafant toys Santa left under the tree last year, which means I really shouldn't be eying anything else at all. But considering the prices and the versatility of these cool, cardboard toys, I just can't help myself.

Earth Day Pick - Children's furniture they can doodle on

I had the dizzying pleasure of attending the mammoth Toy Fair in February, and one thing that seemed to be everywhere was cardboard. Of all of them, my favorite was easily the U.S.-made Elia Mini Chair Kit which takes this basic material and turns it into a piece of kid-size furniture.

DIY toys, hold the hammer and nails

In concept, I'm all for kids making and decorating their own toys. But the fact that they generally involve sharp, pointy tools along with paint that does not come off with a simple bar of soap sort of puts a damper on my plans.

Ground Control to Major Aidan

We joke that since the lead paint recalls, that we're all happy to let our kids play with cardboard boxes. But the reality is - kids like to play with cardboard boxes!

"Who Effed Up The Toys???"

I can't take credit for the headline - it's was written by my friend Karen as the subject of an email she sent yesterday, alerting us all to yet another toy recall. I'm ready to just dump anything in the toy chest that wasn't made by hand out from virgin pine by monks.

next prev;