MOTHER'S CHILDREN

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Make Cardboard Houses!

MOTHER feels strongly that youths can be creative "Doers," working toward more ecological and self-reliant lifestyles . . . whether their tasks be raising chickens on a farm or maintaining rooftop container gardens in the city. To support the endeavors of our often overlooked "underage" citizens, we're glad to publish well-written articles from younger children and teenagers concerning projects they've undertaken. However, we recommend that all young authors query (that is, send us a letter telling about the story they'd like to do) before writing a full article. Address inquiries to Mother's Children, THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS, P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, NC 28793.

by Eva Jordan

My mother is an artist and art teacher. We have two friends who are picture framers. One of them had a bag of leftover mat board. My mother told him she'd like to use it for art projects, so he gave it to her.

I tried making a cardboard house out of the mat board, and it was lots of fun. I had a great time drawing on the walls. This is the only time in my life my mom ever let me draw on walls!

For my first house I drew a big window and door on the front. The window has stained glass and a purple curtain. The door is blue. I put the same address number on my cardboard house that is on my real house—15474. I put rainbows all over the back of the house. And I drew flowers all over one side and a window with a pot of flowers in it on the other. It really looked like my house.

I made an apartment building, too. I decorated it with watercolors, crayons, markers, and wallpaper samples. I cut out magazine pictures of books and a clock and added them. I also used real cloth for part of a curtain. Gee, I think I could use just about anything to decorate a cardboard house!

Making a cardboard house is pretty easy, but you may need a grownup to help you cut the cardboard and to hold the pieces together when you glue them. Ask a framer if he or she will give you some leftover mat board. If there are no framers nearby, you can use regular brown cardboard. You might want to glue white paper on it, though, before you start decorating, so the colors will show up good.