Cardboard Craftiness

I really like crafting things.  Wait, strike that, I love it.  I come by it naturally.  My mother hoarded supplies in case of creative inspiration.  I have a whole room filled with fabric, some paper goods, glue sticks, plus a variety of books and photography items.

When inspiration hits it may take awhile before I get around to making the item in mind.  Make no mistake, I will get around to it and it will be awesome.  Except, when sometimes it isn't.

I really love including things that reflect who the child is and what they are into when creating portraits.  My son has enjoyed tractors since the day he was born.  He loves other things, like pushing buttons on my camera to...  But he really is into tractors right now.

I thought that it would be cool to build him his own tractor.

I began breaking down and hoarding cardboard boxes about six months or so ago.  They fold flat and are easy to stash.  Lately, we always have large diaper boxes on hand too. 

I probably waited a little too long to start the project (about six weeks before his birthday), it wasn't done quite in time for his two year portraits. 

I worked over the course of a month, beginning in the living room on the floor and then moving to a space upstairs. 

 

I  had measured my son and worked to create a tractor that would 'fit' him... but I neglected to measure our door frames.  I got very nervous when I had difficulty moving the project to another room.  The good thing about cardboard is that it flexes. 

My son loved it immediately.  He soon figured out that it was something for him.

 

 

I lost track of how many sticks I put through my glue gun.  I'd say at the very least a dozen.    I used brown paper to line the interior of the cab so that the diaper box graphics could be covered.

I had a lot of fun putting this together.  I've been told that I should make a pattern and sell it.  I don't know about that.  That's the fun about a piece of art, usually you don't find two that are the exact same.  And, I would have no idea how to go about creating instructions for something like this.  I do think that I may be able to make a second one more efficiently. Or, it'd be more elaborate and no time would be saved.  :D

I was asked if I planned to paint the piece.  I imagined it being just cardboard.  I thought that would clearly convey that this was a play thing that may have been imagined by a child in possession of cardboard.  I like the simplicity of an unpainted tractor.

I think that it photographed really well too.

  

   

Thanks for visiting my blog.  I can be commissioned to create an imaginative piece for your session as well! We are post portrait session and the tractor is still being played with.  We bring it out in the yard when the weather is nice.  It will live in my son's room until he is done playing with it.



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