I have been hanging on to a stack of left-over boxes trying to decide what I could do with them. I am terrible about throwing something like this away so I decided to try making my own tabletop easels…
I had already cut the boxes into pieces and so I started with the boxes all flattened out with the extra flaps cut away leaving me with a set of long, rectangular, cardboard strips.
I took the cardboard strips outside and painted them with fast drying high gloss spray paint. Painting the strips isn’t something that has to be done but I had a bunch of paint left over from a previous project and thought it would be fun to add some color…
Once my pieces were dry, I folded each cardboard strip into three parts and then taped the ends together with a strip of colorful duct tape…
So this is what I had completed so far…
To finish off the tabletop easels, I added a clothespin to the top of each easel for holding the paper… 
The clothespins were attached to the easels with Velcro… 
Now that my easels were all completed, I put paper on each one and set them out ready for the children to give them a try. The children can try a variety of tools like crayons… 
And watercolor paints…
The easels don’t just have to stay on a table. We will try them on the floor and outside too!
The one tip I can already share with you is to be sure to select fairly heavy boxes for the easels so that they will hold up under a bit of pressure. I think mine just might need a little reinforcement but we will see how it goes!
Very creative!
Wow! What a great idea! I teach kindergarten and I think this idea will work fine at an art center. Love your blog!
I have been saving some big cardboard covers that Scholastic mailed big books in. Now I know why! Great idea.
I featured you (and your guest) on this weeks Do Something! DIY Fun and Learning Toys.
Rachele @ Messy Kids
You can reinforce by putting smaller in a larger one, then stuff center with cloth and cover whole thing with contact paper
You can reinforce by putting smaller in a larger one, then stuff center with cloth and cover whole thing with contact paper