Cardboard Ice Castle

Have you been hooked on the new Disney movie Frozen? Well, I know my little 'Princess' has.

For Christmas, Isabella received some small world characters from the movie and we decided that they needed a home. Buying a brand new Frozen ice castle was not an option. So we thought we would make one ourselves. Together with a few cardboard boxes, kitchen rolls, paint, glue and glitter we were able to make a beautiful castle, that Isabella felt proud of.
This project lasted a few days, but your child will love it forever (or until the cardboard gives in)

        

What you need;

Aprons

Scissors (for adult)

Table to make the castle on

A cardboard box

Light blue paint (blue and white mixed together)

Blue paint for turrets

Paintbrushes and paint pots

Glue

Glitter

Material scraps

Tin foil

Newspaper

Cello tape 

Four kitchen rolls

6 1/2 empty variety pack boxes

Empty cracker box

Scrap pieces of material

A clock cut out of a home magazine 

Crystal bobble for the lights or anything else that could resemble a ceiling light

Elsa and Anna toys, however any princess or small role play figures could be used.

What we did

To ensure that the table was protected, I placed newspaper on the top and secured it with cello tape. Isabella and I also used our aprons to protect our clothes from paint and glue.

       

We had an empty box in our craft cupboard, that was destined for better things. Boxes are amazing, they are an open ended resource and can be transformed into almost anything. This box will be transformed into Elsa's Ice Castle (From the movie Frozen)

         

The first thing that had to be done was to cut off the top flap. This was then used as the second floor. To keep this in place, I added two variety pack boxes at each side to rest the floor on. To secure this in place I added cello tape. At this stage I also cut out a door and a window.

         

How can our Princesses reach the bedroom on the upper level??? We had to make some stairs. We used an empty cracker box and did them in three steps.

Step one was to cut off the top section and the side...

                                        

The second step was to place the side into the box 

                                         

The third step was to make the steps. I used a strip of cardboard and made it into a consertiner. It did not feel very sturdy, so I added kitchen rolls, cut to size underneath and used cello tape again to secure in place.

                                         

Isabella then positioned some kitchen rolls on the top of the roof to use as turrets.

         

When she had positioned all the turrets, we yet again secured them with more cello tape.

Next was the fun part... To paint it. Isabella said that she would like to paint it blue, as that was "a cold colour". We mixed blue and white together, to make light blue. As you can see by her face, this is the bit she was looking forward to.

                                         

To add to the 'cold' feeling of the castle, we made some icicle shapes out of glue and sprinkled on some glitter. We glued some tin foil to the steps to make them look icy.

        

We cut out a clock from a magazine and glued it to the wall, so that the Princess' will not be late for a ball or date with a Prince.

Isabella had an old bobble that had two sets of crystals on it. I cut the crystals off, along with a section of the elastic band. Using cello tape, I attached one to the ceiling of the bottom floor and one to the upper. They actually looked like Elsa's ice lights.

To create the table on the lower floor, I cut a variety pack in half and draped a piece of glittery fabric over it. You could also cover it in tin foil.

In my scrap fabric box, I found some white fury material, that worked perfectly for a carpet on the upper floor.

Hopefully Isabella will enjoy playing with this castle for a long time.