Making a cardboard sword proved to be a “must do too” after we finished our knight shield. Luckily a cardboard sword is easy enough to make.
This is what you need to make a cardboard sword for kids:
- Hard Cardboard (look for some really strong cardboard big enough to fit the full sword)
- Pencil/drawing tool
- Utility knife
- Masking tape
- Silver tape
- Paint, brushes and craft gems or other decorating materials
This is how we made our cardboard sword for kids:
We first decided on the shape of our cardboard sword: I had in mind something more similar to this sword (from Red Ted Art) but my kids decided that that’s not the kind of cardboard sword they wanted. Bummer! So I asked them to show me what they want, and for like 30 min they took turns in drawing their dream sword and explaining me what they wanted. Once that was settled we started the “real work”.
I made a sword template and started with the cutting of the cardboard sword: As for our shield, I made a template out of paper and then used it as a tracing pattern for drawing the sword on the cardboard. For our cardboard sword, I cut 2 sword shapes from cardboard and layere them into one cardboard sword to give it more strength. I also cut 2 more pieces of cardboard for the handle of the sword (the green colored part of our sword), and connect them to the sword to the to give it a 3D look.
The next step was to tape all of these pieces of cardboard together. I choose not to use paper mâché (because I found it too messy) and used instead paper tape. I wrapped the whole cardboard sword in paper tape. So at the end I had a nice looking and strong sword, but it looked quite unattractive. So Lukas decided to take a black pen and color it, but then we had a better idea: to use silver tape. I put silver tape on the blade of our cardboard sword and it already looked like we’re going somewhere 🙂
I put another layer of paper tape on the handle of the cardboard sword (as we wanted to paint and decorate it. Then I asked my little knight what colors he wanted to use to paint his cardboard sword. If you saw our green knight shield, you won’t be surprised by his choice:-)
Once the paint was dried, I took out the “precious stones” and the decorating began. Soon after we had a nice set: A cardboard sword and a cardboard shield that the kids could use to chase their imaginary dragons.
If you liked this sword but you’re looking for other kind of crafts with cardboard (more girlish) have a look at these easy to make cardboard fairy wings that all 3 of my kids still enjoy playing with, even if it’s almost a year since they made them.
