My friend Elana forwarded me a link to the site Origami Mommy. We both fell in love with this handsome truck, made from a milk carton, wooden skewers and plastic water bottle caps. Origami Mommy lives in Japan, where making toys from recyclables just seems more commonplace. She scanned a page for her readers from the Japanese book that she got the idea from, which is filled with tiny pictures of ingenious toys made from cans, bottles and other recyclables. All in Japanese, and so small I could barely make them out even with my nose an inch from the monitor. But you could tell, there is some hardcore recyclable toy-making going on in Japan.
Making the truck was easier than I thought. I made the one above in about an hour and gave it to my four year old when he got back from school. Amazingly, he loved it, played on the floor with it for about a half an hour, then brought it downstairs with him to watch a movie. I didn’t think it could compete with his Star Wars ships and Hotwheels cars but I was tickled to be proven wrong. “It’s not really a dump truck, is it?” he asked thoughtfully. “It’s a milk truck, made from a milk carton. Tomorrow I’ll make something for you.”
Cut a milk carton approximately as shown.
Poke holes through four same sized plastic bottle caps. Insert two wooden skewers into two of the bottle caps, these will be the wheel axles.
Hot glue or tape two straws to the bottom of the milk carton, slightly shorter than the carton’s width. Thread the skewers through the straws and attach wheels to the other side.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Vroom Vroom. Awesome project.
Good looking vehicles and the boy model is quite special too.
Hope to see a miniature car soon-(speedy one)