Does your kid like cars? My preschooler just adores them! He owns dozens of toy cars and you’ll often find us racing them around our living room or through the park. Today’s craft was inspired by his passion for wee sets of wheels. I made him a two-story parking garage from two everyday materials. (Can you guess what they are?) Now he has a great place to store and park his vehicles!

Here’s how I did it!

• Clean, unused pizza box
• 2 paper towel rolls
• Craft paint (black, white, blue)
• Paint brushes
• Scissors
• Craft knife
• Stapler
• Hot glue
• Cutting mat
• Toy cars
• Optional: styrofoam block, skewers

Step 1
Cut your pizza box in half so that the lid and the bottom are separated. Cut the sides off of your lid so that the top is just one flat surface and paint (use black paint for the “concrete” and white paint for the parking spaces).

Step 2
Now paint the bottom of your pizza box. (Use a stapler to first secure any loose bits.)

Step 3
Use a craft knife to cut out a rectangular ramp in the center of the bottom piece. (Make sure to only cut three sides of the rectangle so that it remains attached.)

Step 4
Now grab your paper towel rolls. Cut each in half and paint. (To prevent them from rolling around while painting, I stuck skewers into a large styrofoam block and dried the rolls on those.)

Step 5
Hot glue your cardboard rolls onto the corners of the lower level of your garage.

Step 6
Flip the boxes upside down and hot glue the rolls to the upper level of your garage.

Step 7
Hot glue and secure the end of your ramp to the lower level. Also, hot glue small pieces of cardboard around the ramp’s opening to prevent cars from falling off the edge (see above).

That’s it! You’ve successfully transformed a pizza box into a cute car garage!

My son absolutely loves this toy. At first he parked his cars nicely into the parking spaces, but after a while he started racing cars down the ramp and landing airplanes on the top level. He even brought in his construction vehicles to “build” a bigger garage with a fire station on the top floor! Wowzers. I love seeing him involved in such great imaginary play.

Happy making, friends!