"Crafting a Roombox" birthday party for my 8 year old

For my daughter's 8th birthday party, we decided to have a "Crafting a Roombox" event.  I will say that I was VERY nervous about it.

I was still a bit traumatized from her last birthday party where there were twice tears and also some arguments.  One girl had cried because we didn't have enough sparkly dots (I had just put out what we had) when decorating frames, and then there was also tears and arguments during the treasure hunt (whose turn was it read the clue etc.).  When the party ended, my husband said, "well, that went well," as I collapsed into a chair.

But this party went well, and I really enjoyed it.   We invited all the girls of her class (unfortunately, our living room cannot fit the boys as well) and told everyone to bring a shoe box (although we had extras) and their favorite doll/animal.

One of the other mothers also offered to stay to help, which was great.

We bought lots of supplies at Michael's:  3 pads of scrapbook paper; construction paper; plastic plants; green plants; wood; green felt for grass and some other pretty felt colors.

 I also brought out my fabric collection.   And I saved food cartons and egg cartons for 2 months.  Before the party, I cut out couch shapes from the various food cartons that could be used as the base. (I also had FIMO clay in reserve in case.)  And I made little round tables by gluing thread to the round wood tops in advance.

I showed them a prototype cupcake shop:

Nobody wanted to do that.

They all wanted to make a house for their animal.


So  I showed them how to make a couch and pillows with fabric and fabric glue.  And how to cut the plastic flowers and make a pathway out of egg cartons.

Here was my other prototype:

And they all set to work - I really love the scrapbook paper as wallpaper.

Here are some of the finished projects:

This animal looks quite comfy. 

The pillow is still being clamped together here with binder clips.

Bed, couch, table and a garden!

Top view of a beautiful garden.

I love the egg carton chairs. 

A slide down from the top floor

(This one has a pool, a slide and a tunnel in the garden.)

My daughter kept working on hers, so it is now 3 stories high: 

I quite like her deck chairs out of cardboard and felt:

She drew some pictures as art for her bedroom:

And I particularly like her garden:

And one girl thanked me for teaching her how to make all this stuff.