DIY Kids' Cardboard Art Easel

I love making and creating things with Chuck.  But sometimes I'm surprised by how much arts and crafts supplies cost.   Whenever I go to Michaels or Target I always do a double-take when the bill comes up.   What?  How did we spend so much?  Is this glitter made of 14K gold?  To stretch our pennies (and my own creativity) I love making our own art supplies on the cheap.  We've made our own Paint-With-Water Pages,  2 Ingredient Body Paint, sun prints with construction paper, and even used tortillas as canvases for art!  With dozens of cardboard boxes lying around, I thought it would be fun to DIY Chuck an art easel.

DIY Kids' Cardboard Art Easel

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This DIY easel is so neat because it only took a couple of minutes to make (score!), is made entirely out of cardboard (cheap!) , and can accommodate 1, 2, or even 3 children simultaneously painting.  Whoa! Intrigued?  Well let's get crafting!

Materials Needed

• large cube shaped box
• scissors
• packing tape
• kids table (We got ours from Ikea, but you there's also a great variety here)

Make Your own Kids' Art Easel!

1.  Grab your cube shaped cardboard box.  Then, cut off the top and bottom squares from the box.  Then, cut the box apart so that it lies flat.  (You want a cube shape because the sides will all be the same length... which is important for the next step.)

2.  Now grab your packing tape and tape your box into a triangle like so.  You'll need to tape two sides together to create the triangle.


And that's it! Tada! Grab your easel and your kids' table and you're set to make some art!

Turn the box one way to create an easel where two children could paint on opposite sides....
(Can of soup or heavy object can hold the easel still)

Or turn it another way so that 3 children can paint at the same time!  

Pretty cool, right?

You can use this cardboard easel once for a play date... or you could always fold it up like this to use it again:
(Although then I'm not sure it could accommodate 3 kids with one side being folded...)

I hope you have fun trying this out with your own kids.  I find this one nice to use because Chuck doesn't always feel like painting and I like saving the space.  Certainly if your child loves painting everyday then a real kids art easel would work much better.

And if you're a cheapie creative type like me, then here are

5 other ways to be creative with kids on the cheap!

• Paint African Pasta Necklaces
• Make Flower Pounding Artwork
• Super Easy Sharpie Tie Dye!
• Tupperware Spin Art
• Make Corn Syrup Paint

And you can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!

Have fun!