Train Wagon Tips!

After Owen's 3rd birthday, I posted all the Thomas the Train birthday party details and links to party printables in my Etsy Shop. Since then (especially with Halloween coming soon) I've been asked to give a few tips for creating the Thomas the Train wagon!

Here's what you'll need...

1. Wagon (Ours was a garage sale find!)
2. Cardboard boxes (Thank you very much Amazon.com -- lol!)
3. Funnels and Buffers (Almond cans painted black!)
4. Screws or packing tape
5. Paper Tape (This is the exact brand we used... Duck Brand Gummed Paper Tape)
6. Paints - Thomas Blue, black, yellow, red, light gray, white and gold.
7. 3M Velcro to adhere the face to the train

Step 1:  Start building the train shape by adding the large box to the back and then placing boxes on the sides and front.  The rounded section at the top was made to hold the Thomas face. We used small pieces of tape to hold the boxes to each other and then two screws to hold the sides down.  (Really, we could have just added layers of packing tape to keep it from popping up, but we didn't want to see any packing tape and our wagon was never going to be a plain-old wagon again so we didn't mind the holes!)

Step 2:  (We painted the base black to cover the green that was already there) Put the boxes back together and this time use the paper tape to hold the seams together. 

Step 3:  Cover the entire train in paper tape to create a smooth base. 

Step 4: Paint the entire train in Thomas Blue! 

Step 5: Make a Thomas face.  I painted this one based on a Thomas the train coloring book page that I googled!

Step 5:  Add funnels and buffers (made from almond cans and cardboard)

Step 6: Paint red lines, yellow circles, whistles, and number 1 to make the train look like Thomas. 

Done! 

Ready for our little Sir Topham Hatt to Trick-or-Treat!!!