Cinderella's Coach: Princess Party Photo Booth

After making the castle centerpiece and Happy Birthday banner, I continued the Cinderella birthday theme with a photo booth. I've been noticing a lot of photo booths lately on Pinterest and after I saw a coach photo booth I knew I wanted to make my own version.

I based my coach on the one from the 1950 Disney animated version of Cinderella. Then I gathered all the materials I needed:

• 1 large cardboard box
• Piece of string or yarn
• Glue
• Pencil, pen or marker
• Utility knife
• Acrylic paint and brush

Start by opening the cardboard box and laying it flat on the floor. Tie the piece of string/yarn around the pencil. I used the pencil + yarn as a compass.

Holding one end of the yarn firmly (do not move your hand from this position while using the compass), stretch the yarn outwards and draw a large circle on the cardboard. This circle is the body of the coach so make the circle occupy most of the cardboard. You can use the compass again to make circles for the wheels.

Once you have drawn all the circles, use them as guides to draw in any details you would like the coach to have (I initially had a lamp that got edited out during painting). 

Carefully cut out the coach using the utility knife. 

Next take a piece of scrap cardboard to make a stand for the coach. Start by bending a long rectangle in half. Then cut two notches near the ends (to slide the coach onto the stand). I finished it by cutting the ends at an angle just to make them a little less visible.

Test out the stand and make any necessary adjustments.

I used most of the cardboard box for the coach. There is some spacing among the flaps of the box, so I ended up with two holes near the top of the coach that needed patching. Depending on how big you make the coach you may not need to do any patching. 

I cut two strips of cardboard to fit the holes. Then I applied glue on three sides of the strips and slid them into the holes. 

At this point, the cardboard coach is ready for some paint! Before painting, I suggest to reinforce the cardboard vertically on the backside of the coach, otherwise the cardboard will warp from the wetness of the paint. I learned this the hard way... it wasn't easy to get it more or less straight again.

Now it's time to go crazy with the paint! I used acrylic craft paint and a foam brush to paint the entire coach (I used a brush for some of the details). In total the coach took me around 8 hours to complete, 5+ hours for the painting alone.

This was the final result! The kids loved it and every one wanted a picture! Those happy little smiles always make everything worth while!