SPY HEADQUARTERS

So the big crafting plans I had for this changed a bit when the boys got involved (isn't that how it always works?!) I figured we'd use these boxes for something so the boys and I came up with making a house which then turned into a Lego Spy Headquarters. When I asked why a Lego spy headquarters wouldn't be made out of Legos I got an exasperated look and "Mom, if it was made out of Lego's the bad guys would know it was a spy headquarters". He has a point!

I thought I'd give an overview of how we made it but the measurements/process will be different depending on the materials you are using.

First they picked the perfect box

We talked about the outside decoration options. We thought it would be fun to camouflage it with leaves but for now they decided they wanted to paint it. I cut off the outside flaps if there were any.

We had gotten out magazines and they were going to cut out furniture and electronics to glue to the inside walls of their headquarters.

The next part kind of depends on the size of your box and how many floors you want. I cut a piece slightly wider than the inside of the box, and cut tabs on the edges. I measured where the tabs were and then cut slits in the original box using the piece for measurements to be sure they'd fit in. (Does that make sense?)

Then we cut out 2"x2" squares for ladders/ramps, cut out strips for the ramps, and folded over a small portion of the end to keep in in place.

As soon as I put in the floor they took it over.

We had one 2 story and one 3 story.

I wanted to clean it up and start crafting the inside with them, either drawing things on the wall, or cutting out and pasting things from magazines like I said before, but the boys were done with the crafting portion and wanted to get to the playing portion.

We'll have to do a follow up post if they decide to add more to their headquarters. For now, they are busy adding Legos and deciding just how they want it all set up.

I love this because it can be used for anything - cars, animals (a barn?), action figures etc.