Introduction: DIY Cardboard Cat Scratch Pad Upcycled Produce Box

By www.upmade.etsy.com
About: Hi, my name is Ilona. I love to make things out of materials that are seemingly garbage. I joined instructables to share my ideas and techniques for reusing and transforming our waste into something more usefu…

Cats and cardboard just belong together...

It's no secret that cats love anything cardboard. I know in our house, as soon as a groceries box hits the floor, there will be a cat inside in NO time...

This is a step by step for how to make an awesome scratch pad for your feline friend from a groceries box, scrap cardboard and a few basic tools! Let's dig right in...

Step 1: Materials

Cardboard groceries box
Cardboard sheets (cut up boxes)
Decorative cardboard, paper or fabric
Cutting surface
X-acto knife
Pencil
Ruler
White glue

Step 2: Find a Strong Groceries Box

Found this box at Costco but any local grocery store should have some options. This one is pretty thick and sturdy and is a nice comfortable size for my cats. I love that the front doesn't have all sorts of writing and pictures that I will have to cover up, just a plainly awesome "AVOCADOS." By the way, this is the perfect time to adopt a cat and call it Avocado!

Step 3: Measure Inside Width of the Box

The inside width of my box is 14.5 inches. I'm going to cut my sheets to 14.5" in length and then cut my strips for building up the scratch pad from them.

Step 4: Cutting Cardboard Sheets to Size

I cut up cardboard sheets from some boxes I found at my work.

I marked 14.5" at the top and bottom of my cardboard piece, then I connected my ruler to the marks I made so I can cut a line straight down to get rid of the excess.

Here's a Tip: to make a clean cut with cardboard make sure you have a fresh blade and do not try to cut all the way through the first time around. Softly running the knife along the cardboard a few times will make the end result much cleaner.

Step 5: Cut Strips

I'm going to cut strips and glue them together to make the scratch pad. My sheets are cut to 14.5" so this is going to be the length of each strip. Anything around 1" is a good width for the strips. To keep things simple, I cut strips the same width as my ruler which is 1.25" wide. If you prefer you can trace and then cut.

Tip: Cutting parallel to the corrugation lines seen on cardboard is much easier than cutting the opposite way

Step 6: Assemble Scratch Pad

I put a good amount of white glue along the bottom of the box and then traced a line of glue on each strip as I went gluing them one by one to each other and the bottom of the box, applying pressure for a few seconds after every 10 strips or so. They should all be very well compacted together to the point where they will probably just stay in place even if they didn't have glue.

Step 7: Open a Door or Two

I cut openings on both sides to make the box even more inviting to the cats. I find that our cats like to spill out through the openings and rub their faces on the cut edges

Step 8: Cover Up the Writing

Now it's time to add the finishing touch. Every box is different so this is just what I decided to do with this one. I cut strips of this "pretty" cardboard I had around and glued them to cover the writing on the sides. You can use some nice paper to cover with instead, or even some fabric or anything else that can glue to cardboard for that matter.

Step 9: Time to Play!

It took my cat maybe about 10 seconds to wake up and throw herself into the box. Cats and cardboard just belong together..

Step 10: Other Examples

I've made a few different versions of this over the last couple of years and I have to say that they've all been a hit!

Thanks for checking my tutorial, I hope it inspires you to get creative!