As an animal lover and an artist with plenty of time on my hands, "Cardboard Cosmo" was born!

"Cardboard Cosmo" is an attempt to create a geometric dog using basic shapes. I wanted this project to be accessible to all ages with help from a parent or guardian. As I've pictured in the steps below, I have tried to keep the build as simple as possible. The materials I used were just "basic stuff" laying around my house. Because I wanted to highlight the cardboard, I decided to keep the paint to a minimum.

This is the first time I have created a cardboard dog and documented the build.

I hope you enjoy my construction of "Cosmo"!

Supplies

Cardboard
Hot Glue Gun
Snap-Off Blade Knife
Scissors
Paint
Elmer's Glue
Black Colored Pencil

Step 1: Cosmo's Body

In this step, I took a piece of 1-ply cardboard and cut a square. I then folded it in half from corner to corner creating a triangle. The top fold will become Cosmo's back!

I then drew a side profile of Cosmo and outlined area to be cut out from both sides of the cardboard.

Pictured - Folded triangle, folded triangle with area to be cut out, Cosmo's body with piece cut out.

Step 2: Cosmo's Head and Ears

In this step, the same as with Cosmo's body; I took 2 pieces of cardboard and folded them in half to create 2 rectangles. I then cut out the profile of the head in one piece and the ears in the other.

As with Cosmo's body, I used the fold edge to my advantage. Unfolding the head piece automatically gave me both sides and the same happened with the ears, which will later be draped over Cosmo's head.

Pictured - Pattern piece for the head and ears (unfolded).

Step 3: Filling in the Gaps on Cosmo

In this step, I am beginning to add flat cardboard pieces to fill in the gaps. This will give dimension to Cosmo!

For Cosmo's body and head, I have cut and hot-glued flat cardboard pieces to the underside of Cosmo, his muzzle (mouth), and I even created a tongue sticking out while in this process!

Pictured - Attached flat pieces of cardboard to the underside of Cosmo, along with pieces attached to Cosmo's head. I also added a tongue to Cosmo in this step!

Step 4: Cosmo's Paws and Hair

In this step, I created the hair and paws for Cosmo. For the hair, I cut long strips of cardboard and cut slices half way into them so that they resembled long "combs".

For Cosmo's paws, I first I cut 2 oval pieces out of the cardboard and then, I cut 8 triangles and folded them in half for the nails. I then glued them down to the ovals. After the nails were stuck down well, I later glued the paws to the front and back legs.

As for Cosmo's hair, this part of Cosmo took me the most time to create. After cutting the long strips of hair, I then cut them into smaller pieces and "shingled" them to Cosmo's body and eventually to his legs.Originally I was going to glue down strips instead but it made the hair look like stripes.

Hopefully Cosmo won't end up looking like an Armadillo. LOL!

Pictured - Hair strips, 2 pictures of Cosmo as I attach hair to his body and his paws.

Step 5: Finishing Touches - Cosmo's Eyes, Nose and Collar

In this step, I first painted some cardboard in blue, black and gray. I figured this way, it would be easier to glue together painted shapes rather than painting them after they were glued together.

For the collar, I cut 2 ovals, one in blue and one in white. Then I cut the blue one slightly smaller and glued it atop the white one. Doing this created a white border which would compliment the letters.

For Cosmo's name tag, I cut 5 small rectangles and then cut the letters from them. This way I would be assured that all of the letters would be the same size. I then glued them down.

Cosmo's eyes were simple, I cut colored circles.

Lastly, for Cosmo's nose, I cut a flat piece out of the black with nostrils, glued it, and then wrapped another piece around the sides and glued that.

I choose these colors because I wanted to keep it simple and make them stand out.

Pictured - Painted pieces, Nose, collar and name tag and eyes.