Play Castle

Even a princess has dolls. This play castle will allow her dolls live in style.

Black marker
Large moving box
Rope
Scissors
Yard stick
X-acto knife
Ruler
Grey paint
Paper plate
Paper bowl
Standard tape
Packing tape
Large sponge
Gold poster board
Metallic pink paper

REMEMBER THAT IT'S IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS WORK UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION. SOMETIMES WE USE THINGS THAT CAN BE HARMFUL, LIKE SCISSORS, SO DON'T EVER ATTEMPT TO MAKE THESE CRAFT PROJECTS ALONE.

1. Take a black marker and draw out the arch-shaped outline for the door of your castle onto your box. Use a yard stick if you’d like to make the lines of the arch really straight. With the help of your adult helper, use an X-acto knife to cut out the lines that you’ve drawn. Be sure not to cut at the bottom. The door shape needs to stay attached so that it can act as the drawbridge for your castle.
2. Time to work on the top of your castle. Using a ruler, draw straight, four inch long vertical lines every five inches all the way across the top edge of your box/castle. Connect each line with a horizontal straight line to make squares. Cut out every other square to give your box jagged edges around the top just like the walls of a castle.
3. Use a textured car washing sponge and gray paint to paint your box. The sponge will create a stone-like texture. Paint all four sides of your box and set it aside to dry for about an hour.
4. While your box castle dries, you can work on the towers to attach to it. Take four pieces of gold poster board and paint them the same way you painted your box. Set them aside to dry for about an hour.
5. Now that the main body and poster boards for your castle are dry, it’s time to draw on some stone lines. Draw irregular shapes all over your castle and towers.
6. Time to start putting everything together. Turn over two of your poster boards and line them up side by side. Apply tape down the middle between them to attach them. Do the same to the other two.
7. Take the back ends of the taped poster boards and roll them towards the front end to create tubes. Tape the rolls together at the middle and ends. Now you have the bodies for your castle’s towers.
8. Stand up your castle box and tape the towers to each side at the bottoms.
9. To make the roofs for your towers, cut out a large square of metallic pink wrapping paper. Then, round off the corner of each square to make a circle. Cut the circles in half and then roll each semi-circle into a cone. Secure the cones with tape and trim any excess away from the edges. Tape the roofs onto the top of each tower.
10. To finish the drawbridge, Cut out two pieces of rope long enough to stretch from the top of the doorway to the floor. Then, cut a hole on either side of the doorway as well as on either side of the drawbridge itself. Make a knot at the end of each rope and thread one rope through each hole in the doorway. Thread the other end of each rope through a hole in the drawbridge and knot them to secure them. Now you can pull your drawbridge up and down!