The Best Cardboard Mazes Ever

Back to Clark Puppeteers Home Page The Best Cardboard Mazes Ever! by Chris Clark
	Usual warnings before you start... Use common sense!!! Use only safe cardboard, not any that has held chemicals or is stained, wet, or has sharp edges Remove all staples, even those you think are OK. Look for glued boxes only. Maintain adult supervision so kids don't get scared or hurt by larger kids running over them. Watch for claustrophobia - so don't make the maze TOO tight. I always make sure I can negotiate it. Be a good citizen if you dumpster dive for your cardboard, don't make a mess, ask first, return cardboard to places that get money for recycling. Recycle all the cardboard. You get an extra use out of the cardboard before it is recycled! Have flashlights for the young and timid so they can explore safely, or have a 'big buddy' go with them. Usually after a couple tentative runs they are lapping the big kids in no time.
	Introduction We have built large cardboard crawling mazes for Halloween and kid's birthdays for over 10 years. They are quick to build and tear down once you get the technique down, and always a big hit for kids and adventurous adults. The features are only limited by your imagination and your cardboard gathering skills.

	Space Start with a large indoor (or outdoor if you are going to have extended good weather) space. Like a 2 car garage, rec room, or large basement. The ability to make the room dark is nice to keep light leakage to a minimum and make it extra spooky.

	Materials/Equipment Cardboard, cardboard and more cardboard. You will never have enough so get a number of carloads in the weeks before. Spa companies, places that sell large kids play structures, and furniture stores are all good sources. You can buy large 4x8 sheets if none can be found. Be a good citizen when scavenging cardboard. Hot glue and hot glue gun(s). We have found this holds the best. ALOT of hot glue, don't be shy using it. Rug remnants, blankets. These are useful if you build a wall-style maze and need soft flooring. Rugs or blankets you don't mind kids crawling all over of course. Mat knife and sharp blades. Be careful! Tape. Masking and duct tape just do not hold cardboard. Packing tape doesn't resist wriggling kids inside boxes too well either, but sometimes you need some to pull it all together.
		Its not that bad, I will take you step by step below.
	Design I just design as I go. I like to mix up long tube runs with larger open spaces. Lots of twists and turns for no reason. Dead ends are fun but don't overdo it. Maybe a secret door or hidden chamber. We have put in kids play structure slides and stairs sometimes but those take alot of cardboard to cover and are hard to integrate, but worth the effort.

	Assembly I like to fold corners and overlap edges quite a bit. Three thick stripes of hot glue and hold it for 10+ seconds. Because the cardboard is an insulator, the hot glue takes longer than normal to set. I don't use clamps or staples or any temporary clamps because you will always be leaving them behind. Enough overlap and you really get rigid structures. A strong mechanical assembly will withstand (mostly) the assault. We have had mazes take hours and hours of kids roaming around inside. Long runs of tubes can be built by nesting similar size boxes and gluing the flaps together. You can use slightly different sized boxes to squeeze the sides or drop the ceiling. If you don't have quite the right box, just cut one up and make your own. Note the U turn in the above picture, the carpet fragment for this center 'clubhouse' that will be topped with large cardboard sheets to enclose it. There are two styles in this picture, the 'wall style' with no flooring for larger areas vs. the 'tube style' of nested boxes for long runs of twists and turns. Another nice long run. Tight glued flaps and light tight too. Corners can be tricky, but I just take a larger box, cut a doorway and fold it down into the next box to make a smooth floor. The door flap above needs to be flipped out the other way and glued down to finish it. Inside of a long nested box run. No sharp edges, everything shipshape. And a transition from wide to narrower made easy by the gluing the 4 flaps together. Transition from tall to shorter, belly crawling for the big people haha. A plastic children's slide incorporated. This took alot of cardboard to cover to make light tight and some plywood panels I had available for strength. Alot more work, maybe try these things for your 2nd or 3rd maze. Another view of the slide annex in-progress. The soft center between the U-turn of nested boxes almost done. The roof is going on. A large comforter over the whole top after it is mechanically sound helps seal out the light, easier than plugging every little hole. All sealed up. You should see kids faces when they are brought into the garage and see this.
	Light Tight I like to try to block out all the light if possible. Just makes it that much more fun finding all the bends and squeezes in total darkness. Cover windows. This goes a long way. Seal leaks. I just cut up paper grocery bags and hot glue them to the outside. Usually one of our kids crawls methodically through the maze and points each out. Then I draw a big circle of hot glue on a flat piece of paper sack and paste it on. When I hear "whoa it's dark in here" I know we are getting close. Heavy blankets on top. Saves trying to seal central areas. Lights out, ready for fun.
	Additional Ideas Put 2 red LEDs in the end of a tunnel, looks like beady eyes. Candy hunt or treasure hunt after everyone has been through dozens of times and memorized the maze. Games of tag or time laps through the maze. I made a small motor with bent wires once that scraped the cardboard like some creature inside the maze once. A little too creepy for some kids though. String or streamers hanging down that brush the face. Weird floor materials like funny fur glued in patches or bubble wrap.

	If you are inspired and create your own maze, send me pictures and I will post them. Please do not link to individual pictures or steal this page or any pictures. www.clarkpuppeteers.com/cardboard_maze.html email chris@clarkpuppeteers.com