Craft Wednesday #4

I have been thinking about this week's craft for several weeks now. We are anticipating the theatrical release of Cars 2 this Friday, and I thought it would be super cool if we incorporated some kind of Cars themed craft into our anticipation for the movie (because yes, we will be going to see the movie on Friday!).

I went back and forth on what we could do, and did a little searching online for ideas. After seeing several examples, I finally settled on making some cars out of cardboard boxes.

{photo courtesy of HowDoesShe.com}

And oh yes, I wanted to attempt to make one of these. Oh yes I did. But my problem is that I tend to be a bit too ambitious. Which in the end, can result in things taking a lot longer than they should, and frustration usually rears it ugly head at some point.

Maybe some day.

But not today.

After seeing a few other examples online, I whipped up my own cardboard box version of Lightening McQueen.

My model.

In the end, this ended up not giving the boys a whole lot of hands-on crafting. I had decided that, for the sake of ease (that's a driving force for me), I would pre-spray paint the boxes and pre-cut all of the materials. The boys would then help in gluing the pieces on.

Oh, I also decided to reinforce all of the cutouts with cardboard. I figured if I was going to take the time to put these together, they should be made to last past today.

The boys also helped with the "bling" process when we glitzed up McQueen's lightening bolts.

{No assembly pictures. I wanted to avoid getting hot glue or glitter on the camera. I should really hire someone to take pictures for me...}

The end result!

(The boys also were able to draw Lightening's smile.)

Ka-Chow!

Drew's is on the left; Reed's on the right.

Reed's box is smaller, so to make things more complicated, I scaled down all the pieces for his box.

Trying them on for size!

I wanted to cover the parking lot in roads outlined with sidewalk chalk, for the boys to "drive" on. It didn't happen today...maybe tomorrow.

So while this was more of a watch-mommy-glue-cardboard-together activity than it was an actual craft for the boys, they're enjoying the final product.

A few funny notes:

* Drew was pretty excited to make McQueen cars. When I told him to bring one of his cars outside for our craft, he said "Are we making Lightening cars?!?!"

* Drew ended up being quite the critic. He kept telling me we were missing things, like the Rust-eze logo on the hood and 95 on the roof. I think I convinced him that it was ok when I told him we were like Ramone, giving McQueen a fancy new paint job.

* I'm so glad the weather was nice (finally) for us to be outside for crafts. One word: glitter.

* I'm not sure if it just took too long to put the cars together or what exactly, but in the end, Drew didn't care to play with his car. Like, at all. But, just before lunch, he gives me a big hug, and in total earnest, says "Thanks for making a McQueen car for me."

Ahhhhhh. :)