Make a Stove from a Cardboard Box

The Little Man kept on at me that he wanted a stove and oven like Mummy’s so that he could do his own cooking. So I thought to my self, it can’t be that hard to make one. We just happened to finish a box of Nappy’s so we used the box to make the stove, but you could use any cardboard box that you can get your hands on. Easy peazy!

What you will need

- Cardboard Box
- Roll of paper (I can get rolls at Ikea) or you could use sheets but it may take a bit longer to stick it on.
- Glue Stick
- Sticky tape
- crayons/ pencils
- Ruler
- Cake cases - just the small ones
- Ribbon - small piece for the handle
- Sharp knife

What you will need to do to put it all together

- Get your cardboard box and tape it closed, if it has handle holes in the ends tape those up also.

- Get your roll of paper and wrap it around the box to cover it then put to the side. Cover the box with glue then get your paper and stick it to the glue. It is better to cover in Glue as then the paper is smooth on the box and not moving around.

- You should now have a box that is completely covered in paper. On the sides that had joins I glued them and then put sticky tape on the joins so that is was harder for small fingers to rip the paper off.

- Next draw your stove top on the top of the box, we used black crayon and drew 4 circles and then coloured them in. See photo above.

- On the front of the box, I just did an outline of the oven door in pencil to make sure that it looked ok, then I got the little man to colour it in, and added a bit of colour and did the outline in crayon.

- Next you will need your cake cases and stick them on with glue for the buttons, you can make the colour in the middle of the button by folding up another case and sticking on.

- An adult must definitely do the next bit, get a sharp knife and cut out the three sides of the oven door, leave the bottom bit so it is like the hinge. Pierce a hole in the handle area and feed the ribbon through, tying it at the back.

- Presto! you now have a play stove and oven. If you are adventurous you could put a shelf on the inside of the oven, I just cut another piece of cardboard and stuck it with tape on either side.

Hours of fun for your little ones. The little man has already had a great time with it. It is a shame that little miss thinks that it looks great to pull apart, so we have to keep it up high away from her.