Cardboard Camera!

Fun do-it-yourself camera that you can make in an afternoon

Ruler

X-acto knife

Scissors

Pencil

Paintbrushes

Fine tip paint pens

White out pen

Acrylic paint (black, red, gray)

Hot glue

Plastic laminating sheet

Tape

Carboard pieces:

Camera:

Sides of camera: 4.5 cm x 5 cm piece of carboard (2)

Top and bottom camera: 5 cm x 10 cm piece of cardboard (2)

Front and back of camera: 4.5 cm x 10 cm piece of carboard (2)

Lens:

Inside circle pieces: 3.5 cm diameter circles (3)

Sides of lens: 1.5 cm x 10 cm strip of cardboard (1)

Shutter button:

Top, front and back: 1.5 cm x 2 cm (3)

Sides: 1.5 cm x 1.5 cm (2)

Extra carboard for details

Gather all supplies.

Plug in hot glue so it can start warming up.

Cut out cardboard pieces with scissors and X-acto knife.

Hot glue front, back, top, bottom and sides of carboard together to make the camera box.

Hot glue the top, sides, front, and back pieces of the shutter button together.

Hot glue the shutter button to the top of the camera.

Hot glue the 3 circle pieces of cardboard stacked on top of each other to make the inside of the lens.

Hot glue the thin strip of cardboard around the stacked carboard circles to make the lens.

The strip of cardboard should stick out just a little from the inside circles of the lens so the hollow can be filled with hot glue.

Hot glue the lens to the front of the camera box.

Fill hollow circle on front of the lens with hot glue to make it look like glass.

Cut out a small, thin piece of cardboard to make the front of the viewfinder.

Use the X-acto knife to cut out the center of the viewfinder so it looks like a window.

Hot glue the viewfinder to the front of the camera.

Fill the cutout center of the viewfinder with hot glue to make it look like glass.

Paint the hot glue part of the lens and viewfinder light gray.

Paint the entire camera, the shutter button and the lens (except for the area of the front with hot glue) black.

Paint red dot in left top corner of the front of the camera.

Use white out pen to add squiggly lines to the front of the lens.

Also add white out to the hot glue part of the lens and smear it with your finger to make it look like a glare.

Do the same on the viewfinder, smearing a little white out to make it look like glare.

Get plastic laminating sheet. Cut out a 4.5 cm x 3 cm rectangle and tape it onto the back of the camera to look like a screen.

Use white out pen to draw little triangles on the back of the camera that will look like control buttons.

Use fine tip black marker to draw a small circle around the control buttons.

Use X-acto knife to cut out small square on the back of the camera to look like a viewfinder.

Use fine tip black marker to draw a rectangle around the cut-out square.

Now you have your own, handmade carboard camera!