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Cardboard Pumpkin Craft and a Makedo Giveaway!

| Filed Under: Children, Fall, Giveaways, Kids Crafts, Tutorials

I have always loved decorating for Halloween, it’s one of my favorite times of year but now that I have two preschoolers under my roof Halloween has taken on a whole new meaning.  Noah and Penelope started asking to decorate our house back in September, begging like no other, that is how excited they are this year.  I held them off until October 1st and ever since then our house has had an explosion of crafts and projects that their little hands could create in as much orange and black as possible!
A really fun project we did earlier this month has been using this cool little kit of doo-dads and thingamajigs from a company called Makedo.  
Makedo is a reusable connector system that allows you to use any materials, like cardboard, plastic and fabric, to easily join together and form new objects or structures.  It is the ultimate in creative play for kids and adults.  And when you are done creating you just pull apart the pieces and then you can re-use them for another brilliant idea.  Cool right!  I love that this whole system is not only reusable but that it gives a new life to all those empty cereal boxes, cardboard boxes, etc that you would throw in the recycle bin.  Easy free play that’s for sure!

We have the Kit for One and it comes with all the pieces above. 

One of the pieces is a safe-saw which allows you to cut your materials.  This was so awesome to have for cutting cardboard.  It works great!  Have you every tried to cut apart cardboard into random shapes?  Sooo not fun….but with this tool it was a breeze!

There are also a bunch of lock hinges which can move freely like a hinge or be locked into a particular position.  

And there are a ton of these re-clips which include a pin and a clip.  

You just push the pin through your materials that you want to hold together and then use the clip to lock it in place.  Then you just squeeze the clip part together to release…easy!  The cool thing about the pin is that it is pretty bendy…not firm like a nail, so it’s not a stressor to let the kids use them although obviously we use this kit only when Mr. Smashed Peas and I are playing with them as my oldest is only 4 years old!

The kids of course were just dying to make a pumpkin to add to our front porch.  I think he turned out so cute!  We used the safe-saw and cut strips of cardboard from an old cardboard box we had sitting around in the garage and used that as the majority of the pumpkin.  Then we used an orange Lucy clothing gift box for the face and used the safe-saw to cut out the eyes, nose and mouth.  We pinned it all together at the top and the bottom and, just like that, the kids made their very own festive little pumpkin man.  
So, are you interested in owning one of these fabulous kits from Makedo?  It really is hours of fun and creative play with your kids.  Really, truly.  
Well, you are in luck!  
Makedo is offering ONE of their Kits for Three to one of you lovely readers, aren’t they the best!  This kit is 170 pieces of reusable connecting fun.  Just check it out:
You can enter this giveaway up to FOUR ways (one comment per entry for up to FOUR entries per person!)
1.  Tell me why you would love this Makedo Kit!
1.  Like Makedo on Facebook here
2.  Like Smashed Peas and Carrots on Facebook here.
4.  Be or Become a Follower of Smashed Peas and Carrots!
The giveaway will be open until Friday, October 29th at midnight
I’ll announce the winner the next day!
Good Luck!
XOXO,

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    Comments

    1. Sara H. says

      This kit looks awesome. My boys would love it for all of their cardboard projects.

      sarahamblin at hotmail dot com

    4. Sims Family says

      I would love this kit. I think it would save me lots of money on Scotch Tape! The kiddos are VERY creative and are always trying to tape everything together. It rarely works! sims.whitney at gmail.com

    6. Renita says

      I can’t WAIT to use these! I have 4 children. Two older.. yet I also have 2 little bittys. I have a 5 year old girl with Down Syndrome and a two year old boy. These look like something BOTH of them can use! I love your blog by the way 🙂
      You can find me at vintagemomcreations.com or on facebook!
      search Renita Nunley-Ruiz or Vintage Mom Creations!
      Thanks for sharing all the cool craftyness! women like me REALLY appreciate all the time it takes to create these posts!
      love,
      Renita in Ohio!

    12. B says

      I don’t have kids myself, but I know a 6-year-old who’d absolutely love this kit. If I won one, I’d give it to him….

      I’m already an RSS feed subscriber (on Google Reader 🙂 ).

      -Bea

    14. Regina says

      Oh these are so very very cool! Like LEGO meets paper fasteners – and the hinges – wow! Cardboard, foam board, fabric, fun foam, – the possibilities are endless in a home that is already ruled by the brick and the imagination!

    15. hollymade says

      That is so cool! My husband and I recently made a cardboard airplane for my son after seeing some pictures online. This kit would have been so helpful for that. I’d love to do more cardboard art projects.

    16. Heidi says

      We live in Portland, Oregon and in Portland, we’re ALL about the recycling. They catch ’em young here, so “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” is something of a mantra for my first grader. The boy is forever fishing odd bits of cardboard and plastic out of the recycling bin “Because we can reuse it, Mommmmm.” So I need a set. Badly. 😉

    17. All Things Beautiful says

      I would love to win this because it has my son’s name all over it. Really you can’t see it? Look closer. I know he would love it. He is such a creative little burger and loves to build things. This would be perfect for him.

    25. Amy says

      My kids are always making projects out of recycled garbage. Can you imagine how much money I would save on tape if they had that set? Awesome!

    26. Brianne says

      Yes! Makedo is awesome! My husband stumbled across it a couple months back and we wanted to get it but just haven’t. I would love to have this to give to our 3 yr old for Christmas. We love to build and make stuff together! http://Www.lovinaustin.com

      I liked your pageand Makedo’s as well. I’m following your blog too!

      Brianne
      Momma to Betty

    29. Steph L says

      This is so neat. Thanks so much for sharing this cool product. My girls love to use all kinds of random things for toys. They would love this.

    36. Laivine says

      Entry #2- I would love to give this as a gift to my nephew- he is very creative and I enjoy giving him gifts that encourage that!

    42. Tiffany says

      I would love to have this kit because as my oldest two kids (ages 4 &2) get older they would be able to use it to make all sorts of creative things. They both love creative play already.

    45. Judi says

      This would be perfect for my seven year old. He is constantly making things out of paper, and uses a ton of tape. This would be SO much better!

    49. Anonymous says

      My son would love to build with this set for sure! Thanks for the chance to win!

      Laura
      LauraucfATyahooDOTcom

    54. Julie says

      The engineer in me loves this set! Can’t wait to make rocket ships and submarines with my son, and princess houses with my daughter.

    57. Jessica says

      SO much fun! My 4-year-old NEVER lets us throw out cardboard boxes! She invents tons of uses for them, and we have to smuggle the thrashed ones into the garbage while she sleeps. With these things, the possibilities seem endless! 🙂

    58. Carrie says

      I think my husband would end up liking these the most!! He loves to be creative building things with/for the kids!! Love these!!!!

    59. Dielle says

      This is one of the more fun new products I’ve seen in ages!!! My boys would be in love with it. But I might not ever be able to recycle anything in the bin. They’d turn it all into toys!