Castle "Daze" Part 1 - Jack and the Bean Stalk

My kids middle school has what they call "Castle Days" for the past 10 years. They have a contest where the kids make a castle out of garbage in sixth grade and it can't be any wider than 14 inches by 18 inches at the base but it can be as tall as you like.

My 20 year old made one that was like the Taj Mahal from the front with many layers. My 16 year old made one with the front cut out but it had a moat with alligators, fishing boat, flooring, furniture and beautiful ivy and walls. Hers had a working clock and a working draw bridge. It had knights, swords and was mid-evil.

My 14 year old did hers when I was taking care of my sick mother. My oldest helped her make it and it also had a working draw bridge however, I don't recall much about it.

My sixth grader has been so excited to get to be able to do hers. Knowing it has been coming, we have been collecting "stuff" for over 4 months. We kept interesting Christmas packages, bobbins, bottles, spools, plastics and we took one of the Jr. Prom trees they used to decorate prom and saved it so she could make her castle "The Giants Castle in the Clouds" from Jack and the Bean Stalk.

We got some old green paint someone donated when I was decorating my kids rooms years ago and painted the base, trunk and cardboard we hot glued to the top of the tree that we cut and leveled. We then cut and glued the castle to the base cardboard. I had some old primer we used to paint the castle grey and we used the leftover paint from the food bank bench for the brown door and path. (that post here: http://thesecretisgratitude.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-bench-for-food-bank-part-1.html)

She has been working on the giant and Jack for a few days. She used a dish soap bottle for the giant. We took some of the scraps from my daughters T-shirt quilt and made the clothes for the giant. (Post here: http://thesecretisgratitude.blogspot.com/2011/02/t-shirt-quilt-for-oldest-daughter-part.html) She took newspaper and wadded it up and used scrap fabric to make his head and painted it with old paint I had. She came up with his face on her own using a Sharpie.

Jack was made using pipe cleaners and a small bead I had. The goose I had from the boutique I used to do and the nest was made from an little wreath and jute unwound both from my boutique years. The furniture is spools.

I will finish blogging about the castle when she puts the details on this weekend. Today she told me how much fun she was having putting everything together and painting it all. I have always hated projects that require parental supervision (hot glue, paint etc) but doing this today with my youngest, knowing this is my last "Castle Days," I really enjoyed spending the time sharing with her the best way to put it together.

I am looking forward to seeing her finished project. To be continued.....