Make a Cardboard Cottage for Bitty Bunny Benjamin!

We recently decided that Bitty Bunny Benjamin needed a seaside cottage home. So we went straight to work constructing him one from our favorite humble material, cardboard.

We knew he had to have some coastal tiles upon his roof as well as lookout storm window.

To make your own cardboard cottage:

You will need:

• 1 cardboard box and extra cardboard pieces for the roof and shingles

• scissors

• adhesive (i used hot glue)

• bbq skewers

• x-acto knife

1. Find a cardboard box big enough to fit you character. Cut off top flaps if you have them on your box.

2. Begin by cutting off the front side of the cardboard box

3. Cut a triangle the width of the back side of the house. Cut out circular window using x-acto knife. Use bbq skewers to push through bottom of box and then up into triangle for stability. Glue and push down top triangle into back side of house.

4. Cut roof piece and fold in half. We added a window by cutting out a rectangle form one side of the roof and then reattaching using another skewer so that the window can open and close.

5. Cut out a separate cardboard (or in our case we used mat board) piece for the floor and paint a diamond floor pattern. Glue floor into house.

6. Glue Roof top onto house. Let it dry.

7. Cut out shingles from cardboard.

8. Attach onto house one at a time starting form the bottom, working up. Your house is now ready to inhabit!​

To make the platform bed and mattresses you'll need:

• 2 rectangular pieces of cardboard the size of your character.

• 2 foam pieces cut the size of your cardboard

• 4 large wooden beads (if you can find the ones with one flat side this is ideal)

• 3 different fabrics 2 x's the size of your foam to cover mattresses

Make the bed by:

1. Glue two cardboard rectangles together for added support (you might even want to have the corrugation going different ways for more support).

2. Glue on 4 wooden beads to each corner of the cardboard

3. Cut out 3 foam mattresses the size of your cardboard

4. Cut out 3 pieces of fabric for each mattress that are twice as wide and have at least 1/4" seam allowance on all sides.

5. Fold fabric in half (right sides together) and stitch top and bottom sides, leaving large side open

6. Turn fabric right side around and slip foam mattress into fabric sleeve.

7. Stitch close remaining side opening. You can add tufting by hand stitching for a nice touch.

8. Repeat steps 5-7 for remaining mattresses.

9. Place mattresses on your bed and put your new bed into your new cottage and play!