Pizza Box Loom -- A Cardboard Box Challenge

To celebrate her blog's one year anniversary, Rachelle of Tinkerlab issued a challenge - do something fun with a cardboard box and share it with the world.

We've raided the recycling bin before for cardboard boxes (the peanut butter covered YUM sign was my personal favorite) but I tried to come up with something unique this time. And something not too messy because last night when a buyer gave me 10 minutes notice to see the house, I wound up putting a sinkful of dirty dishes in my car. Yeah, not my best moment but the house looked good!

My original thought was to create a solar oven out of a pizza box, but Claire has been obsessed with my scrap pile of fabrics (I've been busy whipping up curtains and she plays "sewing" or "spaghetti" with the scraps) so I instead I whipped up a cardboard loom for her.



The "how-to" for this project could not be easier, and for the minimal effort put into this, it kept Claire busy for a good hour.

While eating the pizza, I cut long vertical slits into the box.

See them below? Claire thought if she laid in the box she could be a pizza that "Mommy would gobble up in kisses." This kid cracks me up.

We raided the scrap pile for a hodpodge of fabrics. Recognize the blue and green ones from the refrigerator quilting project?

I got things started for her and Claire pulled the fabric through each row. It was tricky for her to get the hang of it, but after a few minutes she was able to take over. If the slits had been wider vertical slats rather than single line cuts, weaving would have been easier.