By Spramani Elaun

Kids love painting on cardboard!

Painting on cardboard can be a great surface for kids to practice painting.

You can also save lots money by having kids practice painting on cardboard rather than expensive canvases.

As an art teacher I use may boxes for many types of painting activities.

Recycled cardboard is so earth-friendly!

By choosing to use recycled cardboard you also save lots of energy, water and not to mention the positive impact it has on our environment.

By using cardboard we cut down on the use of cotton cultivation by not buying new papers to paint on.

It’s also a known fact herbicides are used to defoliate cotton prior to harvesting which is more environmental pollution.

So use recycled cardboard as much as you can.

Recycled Cardboard Facts

One ton of recycled cardboard saves:

• 390 kWh hours of electricity.
• 46 gallons of oil.
• 6.6 million Btu’s of energy.
• 9 cubic yards of landfill space.

Cardboard and paper waste make up 41% of the municipal solid waste stream.

Recycling cardboard takes 24% less energy and produces 50% less sulfur dioxide than making cardboard from raw materials. Learn More Here

Ideas for Painting on Recycled Cardboard

I’ve hosted many community collaborative painting projects using large TV cardboard boxes with great creative results.

Cardboard boxes can range from small sizes like a cereal boxes to a large T.V. box and even bigger.

Best paints to use is acrylic, craft and tempera.

You can even glue stuff to make it interesting like I have in these picture examples.

Kids will even enjoy painting on top of the same box from time to time!

Projects I’ve done with kids:

City of Trash – gluing trash to look like city buildings, then painted.

Aquarium –  TV box painted blue, then children recycled trash into sea life creatures.

Plain Canvas Box – I have also glued old small canvas onto a large cardboard box. I do this when we have old canvas that kids don’t want to keep.

Objects fun to glue on recycled cardboard:

Paper rolls

CDs

Egg cartons

String

Grocery small boxes

Lids tops from plastic food containers.

Old plastic toys from fast food meals

Styrofoam

Fabric Scraps

Straws

Bubble Wrap

Tip – Use a low temp glue gun

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