How to Make a Cinderella Carriage Stand Up Out of Cardboard

The ball carriage from Grimm's classic fairytale story of Cinderella has been rendered by hundreds of artists and animators over the century. Nearly all such illustrations, however, are recognizable due to the carriage's famed pumpkin shape. You can generate your own fairytale atmosphere by creating your own cardboard standup using the shape of a pumpkin as your guide, even if you lack the ability to draw the shape freehand.

Assemble pictures of the component parts of the carriage. Draw, or find in clipart, a line drawing of a pumpkin, some carriage wheels, a carriage window and a carriage door.

Create a transparency projector slide of the images. Professional print shops will print the transparencies from computer files, or you can purchase blank transparency sheets at an office supply store and trace the images using permanent marker. Use a separate sheet for each image, or cut out the images so that they can be displayed separately.

Use mounting squares to mount the large piece of cardboard on the wall temporarily. Choose a location where there can be plenty of empty floor space in front of the cardboard.

Project the pumpkin shape onto the cardboard using the transparency projector. Adjust the position of the projector until the projection on the cardboard is the size you want for your carriage. Leave enough room to add the wheels, later.

Trace the outline of the projected pumpkin image. Use a thick pencil line; this will be dark enough to show up while you're working on the carriage, but won't show up on the finished product.

Add the windows and door to the pumpkin shape. Project the images of the wheels, windows and door onto the pumpkin you've already traced, and trace these in the same manner.

Turn off the projector and set it aside.

Take down the cardboard and cut out the carriage shape using a craft knife.

Paint the carriage. Paint the outline of the door, wheel and window shapes before filling in the rest of the carriage with color. Use a pale pastel and/or pearlescent color for the carriage. Feel free to decorate portions with glitter or metallic paint. Let the paint dry.

Create the stand to hold up the carriage. Cut a right triangle from cardboard; make the height of the triangle at least two thirds the height of the finished carriage and make the base of the triangle about half the height. Attach the straight edge of the triangle to the back of the carriage cutout using strips of duct tape, and enjoy.