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Once upon a time, “Let’s do a craft!” was a rallying cry in my house. These days, I have to beg, bribe and borrow other people’s children to get any help with my craft projects. My boys, ages 13 and 9, are currently the masters of their own crafting domain, and their projects tend to focus on creating Medieval knight helmets out of shipping boxes and spy telescopes out of empty paper towel rolls.

So it should not have come as a great shock that they were less than thrilled about my idea to create houses from shoe boxes. Even when I told them that they could make them into action hero houses, or a Minecraft world, they were not enthusiastic about the prospects. But I persevered and played the “I’m the Mom!” card. “You will craft, and you will like it,” I declared. Who did they think they were, refusing to craft with me? I was the one who was tired, harried, and experiencing a bad case of brain fuzz from the amount of things on my to-do list. I was the one with the deadline looming.

In the end we all enjoyed about 15 minutes of cutting out images of toilets, beds, tables and lighting fixtures together, before they tiptoed back to their iPods and Legos.

This left me with a host of empty shoe boxes, a table littered with paper and glue sticks, and that same deadline. So I did the only thing I could think of: I poured myself an adult beverage and crafted on.

I papered the back of the boxes with remnants of my favorite scrapbook paper, cut a box lid, creating a divider in the middle of the box for a second floor, and then begin “furnishing” my two rooms with our magazine cutouts. My intention was to stop at those first two rooms, but who wants a house with no kitchen or bathroom? Or sunroom? So I kept going. Papering more boxes. Looking for the perfect kitchen cabinets, and adding a pair of rain boots by the patio door. Before I knew it, the only lights still on in our home were in the dining room. I had sat there working for hours, my head remarkably free of brain fuzz.

The next day, home from work and school, my blood pressure slightly elevated from arguments over chores and lost coats, I began to clean up the previous night’s crafty mess, when I decided what my house really needed was an attic. And maybe another bedroom. So I sat back down and got to work, not looking up again until my sweet husband put a piping hot bowl of spaghetti down in front of me. Once again, I had lost all track of time, managed to lower my blood pressure, and expel the brain fuzz. Suddenly, I had a flash of a rough patch in my childhood, when my family had to live with my grandparents for a month. My mother, the one who shouldered the care of us kids, and the burden of keeping things cheerful no matter what our circumstances, spent almost every evening after bedtime, locked in my grandparents dining room, making Christmas ornament after Christmas ornament. Only now, staring at my little shoebox house, can I appreciate what that crafting was really about. Therapy. Therapy for an overworked, worn out momma, doing her best to hold herself—and her family—together during a tough time.

This spring break, maybe it’s not just the kids who need to do the crafting. Home with an extra-full house of kids who have been cooped up for a week, worn-out from the change in routine, maybe it’s the parents who need a craft break the most. And maybe it’s not a bad thing if the the kids don’t want to help. Maybe it will buy you a little alone time.

Shoebox Doll House
(for moms, dads and maybe even the kids)

Supplies

• Empty Shoe Boxes, 3-5
• Old magazines
• Scissors for each crafter
• Glue stick for each crafter
• Craft Paint
• Hot Glue

Step 1: Decide how you want your house to be set up. Arrange your boxes in a variety of ways, stacking them on top of each other until you find the perfect arrangement. Some boxes you will want to lie on their sides, others you will want to stand up on their ends.

Step 2: Cut up box lids to create floors and divider walls in your boxes. Attach inside your box using hot glue. If you want to get fancy, cut doors in your divider walls.

Step 3: Cover the walls of your rooms using scrapbook paper, wallpaper scraps, or craft paint.

Step 4: While Step 3 dries, go through your old magazines and begin to cut out small-scale images of home furnishings and accessories.

Step 5: Start arranging your rooms and gluing on furnishings using your glue stick. Remember to be whimsical and have fun—this is your chance to create a house of your dreams, regardless of price or practicality!

Step 6: Glue all your boxes together in your final house arrangement using copious amounts of hot glue. Perhaps add a roof line out of poster board, or a chimney from a Pringles can to unify the whole look.

Step 7: Paint your exterior. Using your craft paint, cover the outside of your house with a unifying color. Let dry. Enjoy!

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Jerusalem Jackson Greer is a writer, crafter, speaker, urban cottage farm-gal and author of “A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting and Coming Together.” She blogs at JerusalemGreer.com.