I love to make things out of something you might throw away or recycle. I teach preschool so there is always a plethora of “garbage” that can be made into something fun if you’re desperate enough.  We just made garages out of shoeboxes in my class, but didn’t think of this cool ramp until they had all gone home. Dang it.

If you want to make a garage for your kiddies or grandkids, it’s as easy as pie. (purchased from a bakery….pie is hard to make).  You can paint it or leave it as is.

What you need:

• One shoe box with an unattached lid
• Glue gun
• Paint and paint brush
• Old spools or anything to use as a garage handle.
• Scissors

Paint your garage.  It’s nice to have black paint for the top so you can make it look like a road. When the paint is dry, use some yellow paint to make stripes in the road. (Yellow or white painters tape could be used as well). Cut out a door. You could also make a wide cut on the other side so you could park lots of cars inside. Decorate your garage with stickers or other artistic additions. Next, with scissors cut a slit on the seam of  the two corners on both ends of the shoe box.

Coat the end piece of one side of the shoe box with hot glue and press it to the end of the road. The lid should be facing down so the edges can be bent up to make the side rails on the ramp.

TA DA!

We broke out the old matchbox collection of my now 15-year-old son. I KNOW if I wasn’t there watching he would have tried it out.  The cars speed down the rail and it is wide enough to race two cars at once. You could use lots of shoeboxes and make a whole town.  Try it!