This week we’ve been making a shoe box school bus craft!
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I thought at first that we would just paint the shoe box yellow. For reasons I won’t bore you with F has recently only wanted to paint with yellow, so I have a big bottle of yellow poster paint for these occasions. However it just didn’t coat the box in a satisfactory way.
So I covered the box in white fingerpaint paper BUT before I did that, I added a few strips of cardboard to each edge, to lie flush with the box lid. This way, when covered with paper each edge would be smooth rather than two level. Then I covered it with two pieces of paper.but in the end I decided to keep it simple.
For the wheels I used two empty cardboard tubes and glued circles of black cardstock to each end of them.
Note: You’ll probably have noticed that I’ve gone for a simple, more modern bus shape, rather than adding another box to the front for a hood (bonnet). If you want to see an example of that type of vehicle, check out my Delivery Truck craft.
Time to get painting! F did lots of it but it needed a few painting sessions and two coats, so I finished it off.
Then I added some detail. Lights and window at the front and a big door at the side, made from black cardstock and some metallic paper. I debated whether to make it a working door or not, but in the end I decided against.
Then I glued the wheels to the underside of the bus, feeling pleased that I’d added those extra strips of cardboard before covering the box, otherwise my wheels would have been wonky.
Then I added the side windows and two long strips of black cardstock. At this point I considered letting F place the windows on the other side, but well, I got carried away and finished it! I also added a printed out Stop Sign to the side and back of the bus.
F immediately recognised it as a school bus (phew) and played with it for a bit. I think he got a bit bored after he realised that the wheels didn’t go round though!
This activity was part of our All Things Bus week.
