Kleenex Saves the Day: Sniffles and Steamboats

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Kleenex but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #KleenexTarget  https://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…in a lot of ways!  But there’s also a not-so-wonderful part of winter.  Along with all the holiday cheer and festive fun comes cough, cold and flu season, and that is not wonderful at all.  As most of you know, this is Little Crafter’s first year of school, so now we get the extra “joy” of all the germs going around his classroom.  At the moment, there is a stomach bug as well as a nasty cold making the rounds among his classmates.  Fortunately, LC missed out on the former, but he did end up with the sniffles.  Thank goodness for Kleenex!

While I was in Target doing some Christmas shopping, I grabbed a 4-pack of Kleenex to help get us through this not-so-fun part of the season.  I had printed out a $1 off coupon good on any 4-pack or larger, plus they were on sale…hooray for savings!

So, you may be wondering, “How does the Artsy Family get through cold and flu season?”  {If you’re not, you’re still in luck because I’m going to tell you anyway!}  The answer is obvious…we craft!  Sick days are no fun for anyone, not the kiddo and definitely not the mama either.  So, we have to find creative ways to use our time.  After all, one can only watch certain movies so many times…  The thing about a sick day, though, is that we obviously aren’t going to be trekking all over the place to buy supplies.  Instead, we have to do what we can with what we have on hand.  Like this!

Once the Kleenex serve their {very important!} initial purpose, we’re left with the boxes. {Bonus: They have box tops for education on them!}  I don’t know what you see when you look at this box, but I see possibilities!  A home for a stuffed animal.  A block.  A bank.  A steamboat.  This box plus a few things from our stash turned into more than an hour’s worth of crafting fun, and that doesn’t count the time we spend playing with it!  We decided on a steamboat because Little Crafter’s class is learning about them in school and were inspired by a handout from Crayola that he got from his teacher.  Here’s what we made, and how we did it.

Materials:
– Kleenex box
– wrapping paper
– clear tape
– aluminum foil
– straws
– two pipe cleaners
– cardboard tube
– cardboard {ours was the wrapping paper roll}
– scissors
– craft glue, low temp hot glue gun and glue sticks
– cotton ball or polyfil

All of these were things we already had around the house, and I bet you do too!  So, not only was it fun, it was absolutely free, AND it was upcycling things we’d have thrown away.  Win, win, WIN!

Step 1: Wrap your Kleenex box like a present.

Step 2: Cut rectangles from foil and glue them on the sides as windows.  LC loved this part…naturally, since it involves glue.

Step 3: Cut a small section of your cardboard tube and wrap it in foil.  Try to shape it into a rectangle if you can, then glue it on top.

Step 4: Create your paddle wheel.  We cut eight rectangles out and glued them together.

Step 5: Attach your wheel to the boat.  We glued two pipe cleaners along the length of the Kleenex box, then bent them down and over.  Then, we glued the pipe cleaners to the paddle wheel to hold it in place.

Step 6: Add details.  We glued wooden craft sticks to our pipe cleaners, then cut and glued a piece of a straw to the top of the boat.  To make steam, we glued some cotton to the straw!  Two more straw sections went on each side of the boat.

Little Crafter practiced his handwriting skills by writing “Boat.”  I tried to get him to give the boat a name, but he insisted it was just “Boat.” I think he avoided anything more because he didn’t want to write more than four letters.  Smart kid.  He also insisted that I draw a picture of him making the boat.

Once we glued on the sign, our boat was in business.  Ready to be played with, ridden by Lego men, and driven up and down the river {aka the living room floor} to LC’s heart’s content.  His only disappointment was that it’s not truly seaworthy and thus, could not accompany him in the bathtub.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a great sick day project!  It kept both of us entertained for quite some time, and is a great way to reuse our Kleenex boxes!  Plus, it provided the perfect opportunity to learn more about steamboats by talking about the parts, and even looking at photos and articles online to read about how paddle steamers work.

Thank goodness Kleenex is always there to come to the rescue during cold and flu season…in more ways than one!  Next time the little {or big} noses in your life need a tissue, you know what to do!  Head to Target and take advantage of this $1 off coupon on 4-packs or larger of Kleenex.  You’ll be glad you did!

Hugs & Glitter,