three-inch square upon an end of your box. Draw a line down its center,
vertically. (For double door, see Diagram Two, _B_, page 167.) Cut the
top line and down the center line. The base of your door should be at
the edge of the box rim. The two sections cut in the cardboard make the
doors. Press each outward.
Next, you will need to make the two triangular supports for the
box-cover roof. These supports must be cut from cardboard, and each must
be the width of an end of your box, and be made as high as your box is
wide. (For cutting these supports for a gabled roof, see Diagram Three,
_BB_, page 169.) Glue one to each end of your box, at the upper part.
The roof is made from your two box covers lapped one rim under the
other, lengthwise, to form a gabled roof shape. The upper part is glued
rim under rim. (See Diagram Three, _B_.) Let the roof dry, and then slip
it over the triangular supports pasted at each end of the box building
to hold the roof in place.
Cut a little weather-vane from a strip of cardboard, if you like, and
paste it to the front of the barn roof.
The farmyard is made from box rims cut from any shallow cardboard box
you have. The box rims stand if you cut them with corners. They make a
good enclosure.
A small box, placed on end, will make a shed. The cover of a small box
will make a drinking-trough. Little boxes make chicken-coops.
Mrs. Tumble Toy lives on my farm. You see her in the picture. Her
husband’s name is Bill. He is chasing the pig. You can see him, too.
Have you some toys that would like to live on your farm?
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Just run and fetch some glue,
Some scissors, and a shoe-box:
We’ll make a farm for you!
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
When all the work is through,
We’ll have a little farmyard
With a fence around it, too!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOX BROTHERS’ ANIMAL SHOW
=Material Required to Make an Animal Show=: small boxes of all shapes
and sizes, spools, and candy-box favors, a round bandbox cover to make a
circus ring.
The cover of a round bandbox will make a splendid circus ring. Any small
boxes and spools you may have can be the benches for your trained
animals to perform upon. A really good circus may be made with Noah’s
Ark animals, or with the candy-box favors that come to one at Christmas
and other holiday times.
Shall I tell you how I made my circus? You can make one like it.
First of all, I collected animals. At a small candy shop, I found a
polar bear, a rhinoceros, a fox, and a pig. Each came with a loose head,
because the animals were supposed to be filled with candy, but I glued
the heads on tight. I bought these animals because they were so cheap.
They could stand upon spools to make acts for the circus ring. I painted
each spool red, and pasted over its hole a disk of colored cardboard.
From round box covers I made pyramids, and from square ones I cut
benches. (To cut bench for animal show, see Diagram Six, _A_, page 175.)
Cut a leg at each corner of the box-cover’s rim. Remove the cardboard
from between cuttings.
Swartzenheimer and Mulligan were my animal trainers. Each came to me as
a dinner favor. They were both little figures of toy men that stood upon
a cake of sweet chocolate. You can easily see what a splendid clown
Mulligan made.
The animals performed all kinds of tricks. They could stand upon each
other’s backs. I had two or three tumble toys, besides. They performed
splendidly.
I am sure you will have a good time making a circus. It is ever and ever
so much fun, I think. You can use any animals that you happen to have
among your playthings.
[Illustration: Benches for performing animals at Box Brothers’ Circus
are made from an assortment of cardboard boxes and spools. The cover of
a large round bandbox makes a circus ring.]
[Illustration: This is Box Brothers’ Circus. It is made from the lower
part of a round white bandbox.]
[Illustration: A view taken inside the Circus Grounds. The walls are
corrugated cardboard. The cages are boxes with covers; and the booth is
the lower half of a candy box.]
At some toy shops, you will find celluloid animals. At Japanese shops,
you will find cotton animals. In your own Noah’s Ark there will be
wooden animals and your Boxville people—tumble toys, jointed dolls,
Halloween figures, and favors will form the trainers and performers for
the “Show.”
Wild animals and domestic animals may be bought at candy stores as
favors. They also come in boxes at the shops where toys are found. These
animals should be small—never over four or five inches in length.
My animals are very good:
They do their tricks just as they should!
When I have trained them all, you’ll see
What a fine show this one will be!
I’m making benches for it now,
And, if you like, I’ll tell you how.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CIRCUS TENT AND CIRCUS GROUNDS
=Material Required to Make a Circus Tent=: a round bandbox and a sheet
of cardboard.
=Material Required to Make Circus Cages=: three or four hardware boxes
from three to five inches long. A booth may be made from half of a flat
letter-paper box. Some cotton mosquito-netting will be the cage bars.
A circus tent is a very easy thing to make. It needs nothing but a sheet
of cardboard and the lower half of a round bandbox to make it. The lower
half of the bandbox must be turned over to stand upon its rims. This
forms the sides of the circus tent. The roof is cut from a large circle
of cardboard.
First, arrange the box to make sides for the tent. Then, cut the roof.
In the edge of the bandbox rim, cut out a piece of cardboard the shape
of tent canvas looped back to make an entrance. Draw some folds upon
this with blue pencil. If you prefer, use your water-color paints
instead.
When this is done, glue across the top of your bandbox some strips of
string to form tent ropes. The roof of the tent, round and pointed, may
next be made.
Take a large sheet of cardboard and draw upon it a circle that is half
again as large around as the base of your bandbox. Cut this out. Cut
from the circle a quarter piece like the slice of a pie. (See Diagram
Three, _D_, page 171.) Lap the cut sides of this three-quarter circle,
and glue together to make a pointed roof like that of a circus tent.
When the roof is dry, slip it upon the top of the hat-box, and your
circus tent is done.
If you find some corrugated cardboard, it may be slightly curled and
pressed so that it will stand on its rim, to make a board fence for the
circus enclosure. _Of course_, you must have a fence! Of course!
Hardware boxes that come with covers double and close telescope fashion
make very good circus cages. To make these cages, you will need to cut
top and bottom from the boxes, leaving rims only. You may, if you wish,
keep a very narrow margin of rim around the top and bottom cutting of
your box. Paste strips of coarse netting, like cotton mosquito netting,
over each opening of the box. It should be glued inside the box from
side to side. This makes bars for the cages. (For cutting a box to make
a cage, see Diagram Eight, page 182.)
Wheels may be added to the cages, so that the animals may go out on
parade. The wheels are small circles cut from cardboard. There should be
four for each cage, of course. When they are cut out from the cardboard,
fasten each through its center to the base of a cage by a round-headed
paper-fastener. The prongs of the paper-fastener should be bent to right
and left inside the covers of the box. This holds wheels firm. If you
have no paper-fasteners, sew the wheels to your box with raffia, or glue
them to your box.
A booth for the circus grounds may be made from a box about three or
four inches in size. Stand the box on its long side. Cut in its back an
awning. The awning is made first by drawing an oblong space upon the
back of the box, cutting this outline down at each side line and across
its base. The cardboard is then pressed outward and upward to make the
awning. (See Diagram One, _C_, page 166, for cutting awning.) Color the
awning with red stripes.
Side-show tents for circus grounds are made like the tents of Camp Box.
(See Diagram Three, _E_, page 171, for cutting the rim of a shallow box
and bending it to make a tent.)
All toy figures that you can muster—tumble toys, wooden dolls, penny
dolls, Noah’s Ark ladies, shepherds and shepherdesses, should go to Box
Brothers’ Circus on the play-room floor. If you look among your toys,
you will find animals for the circus, I know. They may even be animals
cut from old magazine pictures.
One day I made a circus
(A bandbox was the tent),
I advertised in Boxville,
But it didn’t cost a cent!
The penny dolls of Boxville
Turned out on Circus Day!
I made pretend sell peanuts,
And I tell you, it was gay!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOXTOWN ZOO GARDEN
=Material Required to Make a Boxtown Zoo=: some shoe-boxes, their
covers, strips of cardboard or toothpicks to make bars for cages.
A zoo is really a splendid thing to make. You can cage all your wild
animals—Noah’s Ark animals, or whatever other ones you may happen to
have. The cotton animals that are bought in Japanese stores, “three for
five,” are just right for zoo animals. You can buy chenille monkeys, one
for a penny, at the toy shops.
[Illustration: This is Boxtown Zoo. Its cages are cut from shoe-boxes.
Box rims are used to make enclosures for the animals.]
[Illustration: Boxtown’s Hose House. It is made from a deep square box.
The roof is the cover of another box.]
When you start to build your zoo, the cages will be made from boxes. Cut
out a large square from each side of the rim. Toothpicks make bars for
cages. They will need to be pressed down: through the top of the box
over openings you cut in the box rims. If you have no toothpicks, you
may make bars for the cages by pasting very narrow strips of paper or
cardboard inside the box cages over the openings in the box rims. (For
cutting a zoo cage, see Diagram Eight, page 182.)
Dens for animals are boxes that have their covers taken off. These boxes
must be turned over to stand on their upper rims. Doors are cut in the
edge of box rims, as you see them in the picture.
Rims cut from box covers make fences for enclosures.
Little box covers make feeding-troughs.
“Do not worry the animals!” This is the rule of all zoos.
I have a lion, and a bear,
I have a tiger, too!
A monkey, and a “nelephant,”
And so I made a zoo!
I put a tiger in a cage,
An’, if you’re good to-day,
I’ll show you how I made it,
For it’s lots of fun to play.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOXTOWN HOSE HOUSE
=Material Required for Making a Hose House=: a box deep and square,
about six or seven inches long, and the shallow square cover of some
larger box.
If you own a toy fire-engine or a hook and ladder, there is every reason
why it should have a home. The engine-house that you see in the picture
is made from a deep, square box. It is quickly made by cutting a square
doorway in one side of the box rim and by adding a flat roof.
Turn your box over so that it rests inverted upon its rims. Outline a
three- or four-inch square on one end of your box. Its base must come at
the edge of your cardboard box rim.
Draw a line down the center of this square, vertically. Cut with
scissors up this line and across the top line. This gives two doors,
that should be pressed outward against the sides of your box. (See
Diagram Two, _B_, page 167, for making the double doorway.)
Place over the top of the box the cover of a larger box, and the hose
house will be finished. Why, it took you no time at all to do that, did
it? Let’s see how the toy engine looks inside its new building!
I have a little engine,
And it clangs across the floor
Right into Boxville Hose House,
Where they’ve opened wide its door.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO MAKE A WIGWAM
=Material Required to Make the Wigwam=: half a round bandbox cover and a
few small sticks or pencils.
Why, of course, you may make an Indian wigwam! It will take about two
minutes to make one like this one in the picture. With it, you may play
all kinds of Indian plays. It will be ever such fun! You will need half
an old bandbox cover to help make the wigwam. The cover must be a round
one.
One bandbox cover will make two wigwams. Cut the cover into halves. Take
one of these and lap its edges to form a cone. Glue or sew these edges
together.
Cut off the point of the cone. This makes the opening at top of the
wigwam.
[Illustration: The Indian Wigwam is cut from half of a round bandbox
cover.]
[Illustration: This is Fort Box. It is made from a deep box and its
cover.]
In the rim of the bent bandbox cone, cut a flap, and bend this back
against the outer side of the tent. Stand the tent up upon its broad
base, and there will be its entrance. Small sticks or thin pencils may
be thrust through the top to make tent sticks. Indian symbols may be
painted on the sides of the tent.
I had an Indian doll, Big Chief Ten-Cent Store. He came in a canoe made
of wood. I made a green woods for him out of crape paper, and he lived
near a silver paper spring upon my play-room floor in his home.
All the toy animals that I have played in the woods and Big Chief
Ten-Cent Store hunted them. There was a deer that came off our Christmas
tree, and a whole family of china bunnies, and—and you just ought to see
him on the trail of Noah’s Ark animals! And—and you ought to see the
lovely mats that are inside the Indian’s tent. I made them at
Kindergarten myself.
By the shores of Abigmirror,
By the shining of its water,
Stood the wigwam of Big Box Chief,
Builded from a half a bandbox.
Dark behind it rose a mountain
Made of paper-covered boxes:
There were pebble rocks upon it,
Caverns where Big Box Chief hunted.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FORT BOX
=Material Required to Make a Box Fort=: a deep, square box with its
cover. A round hair-pin box and a spool will make a cannon for the fort.
Would you like to make a fort for your leaden soldiers? Shall I tell you
how to do it? If your soldiers are small, a box three inches deep may
answer for the building. Its cover forms ramparts of the fort.
To start the building of your fort, turn your box over upon its rims so
that its base becomes the top of the building. Take the box cover off
and lay it aside.
Find a pencil and mark the openings for guns. They are made like windows
upon the box front. Draw each about a half-inch square, and use your
ruler to make each opening even. Cut these squares out, if you wish.
They may also be painted black, should you prefer not to cut them out.
To add ramparts to the building, take the cover of your box and make a
pencil mark upon its rim every half-inch all the way around. Cut
sections from the rim, as marked, every other half-inch. Turn the box
with its rim upward and glue it to the top of your box. (For making
ramparts, see Diagram Three, page 172.)
At the back of the fort, you may easily devise a sallyport by cutting
the cardboard door shaped. (For cutting a door, see Diagram Two, _A_,
page 167.)
A toy cannon may be made with a small round hair-pint box by pasting it
upon the side of a spool between the wheels of the spool. A thumb-tack
pressed beneath one wheel of the cannon will keep it upright and prevent
rolling. I painted my guns black. If you like, you may easily do this
with water-color paints.
An encampment of tents may be made from small white box covers cut
through each long side rim up to the top of the cover and bent, to each
side of the center downward. (See Diagram Three, _E_, page 171, for
making a tent.)
If you happen to have a penny flag, it will be just the very thing to
wave over Fort Box.
You can arrange your fort upon a sheet of crape paper and make streams
and woods all about it. The streams will be strips of silver paper
pasted onto the green crape paper. The woods will be bits of twigs
pressed into the holes of spools so that the trees stand upright. Bushes
are just bits of twigs that may be laid down flat. Rocks and mountains
may be made from stones.
I had a leaden soldier,
His name was Tommie Tin!
Oh, he was brave in battle,
And always fought to win!
I made him into general,
And he is in command
Of all my Boxville Army
At Box Fort in Boxland.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO BUILD A TOY CASTLE AND A FAIRYLAND HOUSE
=Material Required to Make a Castle=: any box, either round or
square—one at least six or seven inches deep is best.
=Material Required to Make a Fairyland House=: an oblong box deep enough
for door and windows to be cut in its sides, a few little crackers or
“goodies”—possibly some gilt or silver paper in place of these.
Have you ever played in fairyland? Well, if you have not been there, you
can very well make a fairyland upon the play-room floor, and in it you
may gather together all the people of your Red, and Blue, and Green, and
Yellow Fairy Books. These people will be Knights, and Princesses,
Witches, Goblins, Fairies. All are toys, and it is an easy matter to get
them together—quite as easy as it is to make a fairyland castle.
I will tell you how. First, you may like to build the castle, for that
is all-important. There never yet was a fairyland without _that_!
Find some deep box with its cover. It really matters little whether the
box is round or square-sided. A round box will make a high tower-like
castle similar to the one in the picture. A square one will make one
more like a fortress. It scarcely matters which you choose. Take the
cover from your box. This is to form the castle ramparts later. High up
in the box rim cut one or two long tower windows. Cut a door at the base
of the rim. Next cut the ramparts in the box cover. (For cutting
ramparts, see Diagram Three, _F_, page 172.) Glue these to the top of
your castle box—and the castle is made!
The Princess who lives in the Castle is a penny doll dressed in a silver
robe (made of tinfoil). My Princess has golden hair. It is long and
beautiful. You can see it in the picture.
The Knight is a leaden soldier. His spear is a bit of wire. His shield
is a brass button, polished and shining.
You can easily find the proper kind of dragon at a little Japanese shop.
Mine was made of crockery and cost ten cents, but you will surely find
among the cotton animals that are sold three for five cents something
far better than my crockery dragon. There are the most dragon-like of
cotton animals at the Japanese stores where I buy penny toys. Sometimes
they are spidery and sometimes they are like crocodiles—only they aren’t
crocodiles but DRAGONS. When you go to a Japanese shop and look for
penny animals you will know exactly what I mean. They are all queer, and
will work into any fanciful fairy tale that you wish to play with your
castle.
Don’t forget to make the dragon a lair, when you have bought him. It may
be just a box with a hole in it for the mouth of a den, but if you have
some pretty stones and pebbles, you can build a _real_ lair on the
play-room floor with these.
Almost any fairy tale may be acted out with the Knight and the Princess.
Little toys which you have among your playthings may help out. I know
you will have a good time playing at fairyland. I did.
I built me a Hansel and Gretel house, too. This was to help with my
fairyland play.
Hansel and Gretel were two tumble toys—a boy and a girl. Their home was
in a Boxville Cottage. When they went to the woods and found the Witch’s
House, I made that. It was in a forest of clothes-pins like the trees
made for Camp Box.
I made the fairyland house of the Witch from a deep oblong box. I cut
two windows in one rim and a door between them, as you see it in the
picture of the fairyland house.
To the sides of the house, I pasted some little crackers and goodies.
The roof of the house was of crackers. It was very fairy.
I used some pretzels for a fence around it.
There were some small celluloid dolls among my playthings, and I made
fairies of them. You can see one that is a Daisy. Her dress is an
artificial flower off my old hat. I took the center out of the daisy and
made a skirt of the petals. The fairy’s wings were cut from white
tissue-paper. They were glued to the back of her body.
All kinds of Halloween figures that are little favors will answer
splendidly for this fairy boxcraft play. You can easily find dwarfs,
gnomes, goblins, witches, elves. Oh, it will be fun, I know!
[Illustration: A Fairyland Castle made from a round box and its cover.]
[Illustration: A Fairy House made of a box covered with goodies.]
[Illustration: Building Blocks and Box Building with small boxes.]
[Illustration: Building Animals and Box People from a collection of
boxes.]
In summer you can go out into the garden and gather hollyhocks. The
flowers make real little flower ladies—just _like_ fairies dressed up in
red, and pink, and white dresses to go to a party. The buds of the
hollyhocks make the heads for the ladies, and you just stick a pin
through these and press it down at the base of the full blown flower to
make the fairy lady. Acorns make fairy dishes too—did you ever happen to
know _that_!
Once there lived a dolly princess, with soft, flaxen, curly hair,
By a cruel spell imprisoned near a Chinese dragon’s lair.
Day and night her pasteboard tower, dragon-guarded, you’ll agree,
Offered ill to those in Toyland who would set the Princess free.
Many little dolls essayed it—in a truly frightful way
They were gobbled by the dragon one and all, I hate to say!
But there came a leaden soldier, all in tinfoil armor dressed;
Bravely on his steed he bore him, valiant, in his chosen quest.
At his blow, the green tin dragon toppled over, vanquished quite,
And the rescued dolly princess was set free, then, by her Knight.
King and Queen, they reign in Playtown even to this very day,
And they live forever happy, as the fairy stories say!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOXES USED AS BLOCKS
=Material Required for Block Building=: an assortment of boxes varied in
size and shape.
Building with blocks is always fun, as you know. You have tried it with
cubes, and with dominoes, and with cards—but did you ever try to build
with boxes in the same way?
The boxes do not need to be glued. Their covers may or may not be used.
Small boxes make walls, and box covers form roofs. You will see a tall
block building in the picture. It was made from small drug-store boxes.
There is really no end to the ways in which you may build with these.
From boxes of uneven size, men and animals may be made. Round boxes or
small oblong boxes form heads. Larger boxes make bodies. Legs and arms
are boxes of equal size.
The faces are drawn with pencil upon the back of boxes where there is no
print. A wire hair-pin will keep the arms in place. It will need to be
pressed through the box sides and bent so that the arm boxes may be
slipped upon it. Men of all sorts may be made. There is great variety,
as forms vary with the shape and size of boxes that you use.
If you are playing with some other child, you will find that it is
amusing to divide your store of boxes, each choosing one at a time till
the supply is exhausted. Then, you may each see how many different
things you can build. It will be a game, and the winner will be the one
who can make the most with his store.
It is entertaining to play with box animals and box men when you have to
spend a day in bed. They may be placed upon a table near the bedside.
They are light to handle, and they require no cutting or pasting to muss
you up. If you decide to have measles or mumps, the little boxes may be
disposed of easily after you have played with them. You can always find
new ones to take their place when you are well again.