Materials
You can use the materials that you have on hand: any glue, colored paper, paints, cardboard from boxes, or even thick notebook covers.
If you want to make everything beautiful (or you simply don’t have thick paper and cardboard at hand), you can buy materials for crafts. Here's what we used to make a bright cardboard construction set:
- Double-sided thick colored corrugated cardboard.
- Regular brown corrugated cardboard.
- Colored cardboard for crafts with embossing.
- The best PVA glue that really sticks paper together is from the LUCH plant.
- and glue stick - from ErichKrause.
Crafts for children
Don’t rush to throw away your incomplete Lego set, look at how you can give it a second life and return your child’s interest in a forgotten game.
Lego table football
An ideal option to combine two favorite children's games. Just imagine how interesting it will be for a child to design a football field himself, and then play table football on it with friends!
For a football field you will need:
- Main plate 32Х32 – 2 pieces
- L shape parts – 8 pieces
- Light gray L-shaped blocks – 8 pieces
- Gray Technic X-hole connectors - 3 pieces
- Red Technic X-hole Connectors - 15 pieces
- White tiles 2X2 – 6 pieces
- Gray tiles 2X4 – 15 pieces
- Gray tiles 1X2 – 2 pieces
- Gray tiles 1X6 – 3 pieces
- Gray tiles 1X4 – 1 piece
- Technic gray bricks 1X2 – 12 pieces
- Technic 12 and Technic 8 axles
For the ball, you can use a ball from the LEGO Chima or LEGO Ninjago set.
The football playing field consists of two main platforms 32x32. Three rods are installed for each team. Two players line up at the goalkeeper's goalpost, and three players each on the other two posts. For the goalie rod, connect the three Technic 12 axles and install the two L pieces as players. For the other two rods, do the same, but add three L elements as players.
Build walls for the field and be sure to build a goalkeeper's goal.
The elements are selected in such a way that they are tightly connected to each other. This will allow the child to play at full strength and hit hard.
Assembling a football field from Lego does not take much time. Simulate your own football field and enjoy the game!
Lego car with motor
Does your child show interest in unusual vehicles? Then the next option will definitely be to his liking.
For assembly, prepare: Any Lego set or several, a good and durable rubber band.
When assembling the car body, feel free to use your imagination. The main thing is that the model has an axle with wheels. We will wrap the rubber band on this axis. As a result, you will get a homemade machine with its own “motor”, which will be started using kinetic energy.
An educational and interesting craft for a child is ready! Who knows, maybe it will be the one that will stimulate your child’s interest in physics.
Visual instructions can be seen in the video.
Lego toy mansion
This design will appeal not only to boys, but also to girls. You can create an entire dollhouse with your own hands, with furniture, a garden and even a garage.
First you need to choose a base. A green platform or Lego table is ideal. Such a platform can perfectly serve as a floor and yard. If you have two platforms, then the mansion can be collapsible. By disconnecting it, you can observe what is happening inside the dollhouse.
Having found a suitable foundation, place the house in the very corner and boldly build a structure. It is advisable to make a foundation for your house from bricks, this way you can divide the room into rooms. If your house is two-story, then take care of the stairs in advance and plan the living space.
When building walls, do not forget about window and door openings. For windows, you can simply leave a hole or use window parts from Lego sets.
When your rooms are ready, feel free to let your imagination run wild and start designing furniture. For example, to make a table you can take a small block and attach a larger plate to it; in a similar way you can make chairs, an armchair and a sofa. If you have Lego furniture pieces, they will fit perfectly into your mansion. By the way, small pieces can be used for decorative elements in your home or garden. You can assemble a lamp, make an enclosure for a dog, plant bushes in a flower bed near the house. In this case, everything will come in handy!
So, the filling of the house is ready, it’s time to think about the final stage - constructing the roof. The best option is a removable roof, which you can easily remove and observe what is happening in your mansion. In this case, simply do not secure the roof.
When the designer's mansion is ready for the Lego family to move in, place the resident figures inside and start the exciting game.
spinner
It’s impossible that you haven’t heard a lot about the sensational anti-stress toy. The spinner has firmly taken one of the leading places in popularity among children and adults. They vary in color and design, but only your child can have such an original spinner.
You will need:
- Axis
- Round plate with hole 6X6
- Two round plates with a 4X4 hole
- Round plate with axle hole
- Block 3X2 - 8 pieces
- Block 2X2 - 4 pieces
- Two round flat plates
Fold the round plates so that the 6X6 plate is located between two 4X4 plates. Place one of the flat plates on the axis. Place the pre-assembled set of three parts on the axle. Attach the top with a 2X2 piece with a cross hole.
Install weights in the form of 2X2 and 3X2 blocks to the middle of your spinner.
Your designer anti-stress toy is ready to play. Simply move the spinner using the protruding parts on the axle.
How to make a construction set from cardboard
Actually, you don’t need any special instructions here; anyone can easily make a construction kit out of cardboard. I can add just a few tips (skill comes with experience):
- the more details, the more interesting;
- the more varied the shapes of the parts, the more interesting it is;
- approximate size of parts - from 3*3 to 10*10 cm;
- For regular cardboard, it is enough to make cuts. For thick corrugated cardboard, you need to cut narrow triangles approximately one-third the length of the side of the square, or wide notches (the cut is not enough). In this case, the width of the recess should be slightly less than the width of the cardboard. Actually, this is the main secret of a cardboard construction set , the key to sustainable structures.;
- the notches should not be longer than 1/2 the side of the square or longer than the radius of the round element.
- the elements do not have to be the same in size and shape.
Of course, if you color the elements, the game will become noticeably brighter and more attractive for the child.
The future and shortage of creative personnel
So I became the mother, albeit not of dragons, but of a plywood army. Just Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers. But somehow I liked my mother better. Because I don’t have any ideas of conquering the world, but I can embrace the whole world in my products. Not a single product passed my hands. For the last six months we have had a tester, before that we did all the modifications ourselves. Imagine a total of 40 hours of assembling a hydraulic arm (this is 10-12 iterations of assembly until all errors in cutting and instructions are corrected). And I still do the final assembly. That's the whole story!
There are many plans in my head. But to implement them we need creative and unconventional minds, dreamers and storytellers. People who not only see, but also feel space. Good taste and sense of beauty, sufficiency and conciseness of forms. People like unicorns, everyone knows about them, but no one has seen them. I saw it, I worked, I know! But cloning is not yet legal. Yes, both skill and ability are still the result of background, not genetics. Oh, mom! Stop my fantasy.
Source
How to play cardboard construction set
If at first the children are confused when they find such unusual material for the game, offer them the following tasks:
- Build the tallest tower using 15 elements.
- Build the longest wall using 15 elements.
- Work together to create a structure from all the elements at once.
- Build a tower that looks like a tree.
- Build a tower that looks like an animal.
- Create a structure where each element connects to at least two other elements.
About the crisis of ideas
So, our project originated within the walls of the technopark of one of the universities in Samara. It arose completely by accident, like all the best things in our lives (for example, love, children, pets, etc.). It all started with the purchase of a laser machine and the question: “What are we going to do, gentlemen?”
And then it started: souvenir products, floristry products, gift boxes. Then Big Boss came, whose name cannot be spoken out loud: “Let’s make construction kits!” - he said, which confused everyone. I was faced with the question of how to generally approach this problem. Any thinking person can learn anything if they have the desire. She built one and launched two restaurants from scratch. At the first one, I generally had a “blank slate” + background behind me. Did you manage it!? Where ours did not disappear!
Designer made from toilet paper rolls
What you need: toilet paper rolls or disposable dish towels, scissors and paint.
First, make 4 slits on each end of the cardboard sleeve.
Then paint the cardboard.
And start imagining!
Here's another idea for your bushing constructor:
Competitors of the famous "Lego"
Does Lego have a competitor? This is a special designer, but there are competitors, and serious ones at that. “Mechanik,” familiar to many compatriots, for example, can be considered one of these. It is proposed to collect metal parts. This is a rare advantage for designers.
It’s not a problem to make a helicopter, a carousel, or a car with a stylish, original steampunk or metallic design. Products in the style of H.G. Wells and War of the Worlds are impressive. They are solid, reminding us that this is not the last century, but the current century.
The “Mechanic” construction set was invented by Moscow employees in 1972. You can buy it today, new versions. It is not at all similar to its competitor from Denmark, but children like it no less.
“Lego” remains invincible thanks to the automatic connection of cubes and strong fixation. True, not all series have such an additional element, for example, wheels. To the question of how to make a mobile home out of Lego, there is only one answer: you will have to borrow the necessary spare part from Mechanic or the Bauer construction kit. Bauer is also familiar to many. This is a popular toy that has large gears for the clock's wheel mechanism. The maneuverable house will be easy to assemble.
DIY 3D constructor from round disks
This beautiful construction set is made using printed templates. Building with round discs may seem quite difficult, but it is a lot of fun.
It is better to use thick paper when printing, and then glue the disks together, making them double-sided.
When the glue dries, you need to make slits - they are marked on the templates.
Toothbrush stand
Children's toothbrushes, for adults, and mechanical ones have different dimensions. This makes them difficult to use. In the morning, not really waking up, or in the evening, tired after a busy day, you can drop them, along with the stand. A homemade option will eliminate such problems.
Arranging toothbrushes in the right order and adjusting the height of the container is a great idea that there is no need to put off for later. The small dimensions of the stand are an additional plus. In no time the craft will be ready. You can also make another invariable attribute of the bathroom, a soap dish. Such an original accessory cannot be compared with store-bought ones. Luxury does not replace exclusivity.
Constructor from rectangles
For the construction set you see below, regular cardboard and drawings drawn by children were used. Acrylic paints and permanent marker were used. There are 2 slits on the long side of the rectangle and one on the short side.
The cutouts are made according to a template so that the slots are symmetrical and crafts made from this material are neat.
Tablet holder
A beautiful phone stand will add variety to a dull work space or desk area. The accessory will improve your mood if you have an important phone call. It will be easier to come to an agreement with a colleague, boss, business partner, with thoughts about creativity, with a philosophy of goodness, and confidence in the soul. Lego makes it easy to find simple, effective solutions.
A vase for flowers
If a bouquet of flowers is an invariable attribute in the living room, or there is a flower bed in the yard, you can always cut the flowers, putting together a vase for them from Lego is a great idea, worthy of attention and effort. For lilies, roses, forget-me-nots, peonies, chrysanthemums, orchids, carnations, you can choose a different palette and make several vases at once. If they fall from a tabletop, shelf, or window sill, they will not turn into myriads of fragments. This is a safe vase, very beautiful.
Sculptures
Lego crafts can be grandiose and create a sensation with their complexity, colorfulness, and emotionality. A sculpture, for example, will look impressive in a room. This is a rare attribute of a standard apartment or house, but with Lego everything is possible.
A UFO will appear in the hallway, aliens will appear in the hall, a whole city will be installed on the table in the bedroom, with mechanical wind-up or ordinary cars, trams, buses, trains.
Sculptures are more impressive than paintings, however, and making a wall panel from Lego is a great idea. Portrait, landscape, still life will be appropriate in a nursery and beyond. This is 100% avant-garde, high-tech.
