Juice Carton Houses
These juice (or milk) carton houses caught my eye a couple of years ago. I think the ones I saw were made from the small milk cartons you get for drinking in schools. But I am afraid, that I can’t for the life of me find the original post! Since then, though I have seen many variations – including cool light ones from Lila A and adorable bird houses and these lovely ones from Mormorsglamour (a nice alternative to ours, as they require no paint!). If you want to make these in a school environment, you may want to use old pieces of wrapping paper or news print to cover your house instead of (acrylic) paints.
Milk Carton House – Materials
- juice or milk cartons,
- acrylic paints in various colours,
- optional – pen & paper for windows, but you can paint these on directly
- scissors
Remember not ALL acrylic colours are OPAQUE – white usually is and pastel colours tend to be opaque (as they contain white pigment). You need an opaque colour to hide all the writing. So you may either want to add a white base layer first or mix a little white with your colour. e.g. that is why our house is light blue!
Diesen Bastelspass gibt es nun auch auf Deutsch: Getränkekarton-Häuschen
DIY Milk Carton House How To:
1) Paint your milk carton house in bright colours and let dry. We used the juice opening as a “chimney”, you could have cotton wool coming out of it!
2) Whilst drying get the kids to draw some windows – this is often easier for younger kids than painting windows on. It also allows for “errors” and they can make as many as they like. With mine, we practice drawing squares (and later circles and triangles) – I drew them in pencil and they copied them. They didn’t want to do them purely free hand and I thought it was great practice. I love that Red Ted added a “roof window” for his milk carton house. And a long “oblong window like Granny has”.
3) Cut out the windows and stick on. Then I cut a door with a Stanley knife for them and again they coloured them. You could add a bead as a door handle and other details, but the kids where happy with how they were. Add some Stone Ducks and Mushrooms and you are all set…
PLAY PLAY PLAY with your milk carton house! I love that later a playmobil family moved in.. and that Red Ted (yes, the 5yrs old boy!) loved his house so much, he took it to bed with him!
We also have some adorable Milk Carton Birdhouses:
Here is lots of more FABULOUS Milk Carton Craft inspiration:
