Cardboard Toy Car Wash, ATM, Gas Station, & Helipad

If you can’t tell… I went a little overboard on this box.  Utilizing every single side to create the ultimate cardboard car wash.  I just couldn’t stop myself.  This thing is hopefully super sturdy and can take what ever the little guy dishes out.

Where to even begin explaining this creation.  It started with an empty Internet Modem Box.  I cut openings on both ends and left one flap intact for the entrance to the car wash. 

Then I cut the bottom up so it would lay flat (i.e. none of the flaps were overlapping).  To make it really sturdy, I glued a piece of white board down on the top and bottom, sandwiching the cardboard base on the very bottom in between.  I then glued one long piece of white poster board around the entire box.  The box could have been painted white, but I am just not that into painting things; therefore, I use lots of glue and white paper. 

In this picture you can also see the bottom with the flaps no longer overlapping.  This was before I glued the bottom white board down.

The car wash “water” is made from blue felt, hot glued on the inside of the box and cut up into strips.  I thought about using toilet paper tubes for the exit, but I had to draw the line somewhere for how crazy this cardboard box was getting.

The rest of the outer decorations are either drawn with sharpie or I glued on printed images from the internet.  I picked Chase because we drive by that bank frequently and Valero was the perfect pick because I found a good gas pump image that fit the side of the box.  It might also help that I just talked to someone who works at Valero the other day.  :)

Oh… one more thing.  The gas pump on the side is made from a shoe lace that Chris had in his book bag (not sure why) and a piece of blue drinking straw for hanging up the pump.  I tied a ribbon through the drinking draw and hot glued it down (on the inside).  I also tied knots in the shoe lace to keep it in place.  Since I couldn’t find a Valero sign on the internet with the words car wash.  I just used PowerPoint and the handy little tool – instant eye dropper – to add the words “car wash” to the sign.  Voila, a working gas pump and a sign advertising the car wash.  If I was really thinking ahead, I would have made the sign say… “car wash, ATM, & helipad”.   

I hope this helps inspire someone else.  But of course, no pressure to go overboard. :)

Lots of Love – Judi

PS – I found lots of inspiration on Pinterest, but this blog post from Little Paper Dog – Cardboard Car Wash – was the kicker.  This blog post really got me started thinking about making a car wash.  You can follow her easy directions to make a car wash out of a cereal box.  Pretty cool!