How To Make: A Cardboard Box Stove

Cardboard Box Stove for your Little Chef!

This cardboard stove will be a hot hit with your “Tot Chef”!

What you’ll need: 12x12x22-inch box, X-Acto knife, cutting mat, thick rope, 3 brads, 3 Play-Doh lids, 3 plastic caps, 4 CDs, 20×12-inch piece of cardboard, scissors, 3 adhesive-backed kitchen hooks

Make it: Position flat box so flaps will be at right and left sides. Use an X-Acto knife and cutting mat to cut an oven door, as shown. Cut two 1-inch holes, about 6 inches apart, on oven door for handle; thread a thick rope through and knot in back to secure. Push a brad through the center of each plastic Play-Doh lid and use to secure to the front of the stove for controls above the oven door. Hot-glue a plastic cap over each brad. Assemble box and hot-glue flaps shut. Glue the four CDs to the top of the box for burners. Bend the right and left 4 inches of the 20×12-inch cardboard piece at right angles to create a backsplash about 12×12 inches. Trim bent side sections into triangular shapes, keeping the full width at the base. Round off the top of the middle section with scissors and hot-glue to back of stove, as shown. Adhere plastic kitchen hooks to backsplash to hold play utensils.

Originally published in the January 2011 issue of Parents magazine.