Make a sky-scraper cat scratcher

We stumbled across the idea of making cat scratchers in the shape of buildings on Karen Kuo’s craft blog, and loved the way she turned waste cardboard into living room art. What about creating a Kiwi version, we asked local upcycling experts Dave and Stella Lennox? The result was a Sky Tower scratching post that any moggy would love.

Creating your own is easy – just follow the steps – or you can use Karen’s design at www.maisonkuotidien.com if you’re in an Empire State of mind. Either version is a great indoor project for kids on a rainy day, and teaches a neat lesson about using creativity to turn waste materials into something useful.

You’ll need…

• Corrugated cardboard boxes (roughly 6, flattened)
• Round objects to use as the templates for each section. They should measure roughly:
    - 18cm across (bowl) – you will need to cut out 10 of these
    - 13cm across (milk powder tin) – cut 18 of these
    - 10cm across (a jar lid) – cut 12 of these
• 7.5cm across (baked bean tin) – cut 100 of these (!)
• An 18 cm x 18cm square (ice cream container lid) – cut 6 of these
• A square piece of wood 17cm x 17cm
• A piece of dowel wood 65cm long x 1.7cm thick (from a hardware store)
• A screw

Tools required

• Electric drill / screwdriver
• Craft knife
• Cutting board
• Pen

Step-by-step guide

Step 1

On your flattened cardboard, mark and cut out the cardboard circles by tracing around your templates. Be sure to cut out the right number so the tower’s proportions look right. This is the time-consuming part of the project, so allow a good hour to complete this first step (and enlist some help from kids if you can!)

Step 2

Take your piece of dowel and place in the middle of each piece of cardboard and draw around the dowel (if you have a cutting board you can use the guide lines to find the centre point). Cut out each circle with a craft knife. Allow 30 minutes to complete this step.

Step 3

Take your square piece of wood and mark an 'X', corner to corner – this will give you the centre point where the dowel will sit

Step 4

With your electric screwdriver, drill the screw into the base of the wooden square, and on into the piece of dowel on the other side until the two are firmly connected. This is the spine of your tower, so it needs to be strong and sturdy

Step 5

Now you can start building your sky tower with your pieces of card – follow these steps in order:

1. Lay 6 x square 18cm x 18cm pieces
2. Lay 85 x 7.5cm pieces
3. Lay 6 x 10cm pieces
4. Lay 7 x 13cm pieces
5. Lay 10 x 18cm pieces
6. Lay 11 x 13cm pieces
7. Lay 6 x 10cm pieces
8. Lay 15 x 7.5cm pieces

Step 6

Mission complete! Now place your Sky Tower on the floor and watch your cat sharpen its claws! If it starts looking ragged it’s easy to trace, cut out and replace a few circles

If you love this idea but can’t see yourself whipping out the tools and making it, we are happy to take orders and make it for you. Contact us at [email protected] or visit our website www.lennoxwoodcraft.co.nz for more details.