Now schools are closed, be a craft wizard and make your own Hogwarts

We have pulled up the drawbridge and are preparing for battle, enemy lines detected from imposing turrets. 

But given two of our favourite cuddly toys are on the lookout, we doubt any foe would dare to advance. 

With schools closed, imagination is now imperative to keep kids and parents sane. Which is why I’m building a Hogwarts-style castle with my children, Rosie, nine, and Felix, seven. 

However, my craft skills are a little rusty. Luckily, there are myriad websites and YouTube videos explaining how to build cardboard castles. 

For instructions to build a toy castle I use the craft website A Beautiful Mess (abeautifulmess.com), but for older kids you can find inspiration on a crafting YouTube channel called Show Maker. 

Design finalised, I rope in Rosie and Felix to help. Without blowing my own bugle, I think we do well. And if I can build a castle that entertains little minds for longer than it takes me to sip a glass of sauvignon blanc, anyone can. 

Here’s my step-by-step guide…

Equipment 

• Craft cutter (a scalpel or knife will do if you don’t have one)
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun (I order mine for £8.79 on amazon.com but if you don’t have one use PVA glue)
• Pritt Stick
• PVA Glue
• Paint brush
• Masking tape
• Three cardboard boxes (I get mine from the supermarket. Each of my boxes is around 23in wide, 30in deep and 30in high, but you can make the castle with boxes of any size)
• Six loo roll tubes (or three kitchen roll tubes cut in two or rolls of card stuck together with sellotape)
• Two large tubes or any roughly cylindrical containers (I use kitchen foil and cling film rolls)

For decoration 

• Water soluble paint
• Brightly coloured A4 card
• Brightly coloured A4 paper
• Three kebab skewers 
• Black felt tip pen 
• Small length of wool or string

STEP ONE Flatten one of your boxes and cut out one of the biggest sides. This will serve as the base of your castle. Ours is 30in by 23in. Paint it — we choose green — and leave to dry. 

Take a second box and draw a line 3 in inwards from one corner, running parallel to the corner. 

Do the same on the other corner, and cut down each line, so you have effectively cut the corner out of your box. Repeat on the three other corners. 

STEP TWO Use your third box to cut three oblong sized pieces of card, from which to make your three biggest turrets. They should be taller in width than the height of the box you’ve cut the corners out of. My oblongs are 20in by 16in. 

Use the left­over cardboard from the first box to cut out another same sized oblong for your fourth turret. With a craft cutter, scour vertical lines, 1 cm apart, along the length of one of your oblong pieces of card. 

This should make the card malleable enough to roll it lengthways into a large cylinder. Tape the ends together with masking tape, and repeat with the three other oblong cards. You should now have four large turrets. Mine are 16in tall. 

STEP THREE With your hot glue gun, squirt glue down each cut side of card you cut in Step Two. Working one corner at a time, quickly attach one turret in between each piece of glued card — so the turrets stand in the place where the corners were, half inside the cut out corners, so they’re supported. 

STEP FOUR Print five sheets of A4 pattern of a medieval stone wall online — I use 14textures.com. If you don’t have a printer, then paint the card yourself. Using PVA glue, stick the sheets of the pattern to the flat outside walls of your castle.

Get your children to paint the four turrets — mine choose red at the front and purple and yellow at the rear. Leave to dry. 

STEP FIVE To make your four smaller turrets, paint four toilet rolls with PVA glue, and cover them in brightly coloured paper. 

Cut the other two toilet roll tubes in half, to make four smaller tubes, and repeat the steps covering them in contrasting paper — I use blue and orange. 

Make two slits 90 degrees apart at the bottom of the smaller tubes and attach one to the top of each larger tube. 

Cut four strips of a different coloured card to make roofs for your toilet roll turrets. I use pink. Roll each strip into a cone and secure with glue, then cut off the bottom of the cone so it is level. Use your glue gun to stick one cone on top of each toilet roll turret. 

STEP SIX Your large turrets and stone walls should now be dry. 

Use scissors to crenellate the top of your stone patterned walls and use your craft cutter to scour out a large arched opening on the front wall (leave the bottom attached so it can open and close). 

Then glue on two small lengths of wool so it falls halfway down. Cut two arches out of the two large turrets for windows. Glue a strip of card across the bottom to make a balcony. 

STEP SEVEN For your final two turrets, cover the largest tubes in coloured paper. Crenellate the top of each with scissors. 

Cut two slits 90 degrees apart at the bottom of each toilet roll turret, and slide one onto the top of each turret. 

Cut two slits at the bottom of each larger tube turret and push one down at the back of each of the two main turrets at the rear. 

STEP EIGHT Make six flags by cutting each kebab stick in half, and glue on a triangle of card. 

Cut eight arches out of white card for two windows on each of the four toilet roll tube turrets, and make frames by drawing on black crosses. Lift your finished castle onto the painted green base — and voila!