Elliott Cramer was helping move a neighbor’s water heater when he had a revelation. Some might say it was out of the box — or, rather, inside a large cardboard box.

“I thought, the cardboard box would make for a perfect rocket ship,” said Cramer, who was assisting a neighbor in their Beaver neighborhood with the appliance. “That box could take us places we haven’t been able to go in 2020.”

And it has.

Cramer has been fashioning cardboard boxes into everything from a rocket ship to a robot for his children. Through photography, he documents their journeys.

Since the pandemic left the family housebound, he decided to let his children use their imaginations to travel to different worlds. Together they used cardboard boxes to create different scenes like the rocket, a pirate ship, a television studio and Broadway shows.

“I know most people have a thousand Amazon boxes sitting around,” said Cramer, who began drawing possible designs when he was injured with a torn abdomen from lifting that neighbor’s water heater. “I wanted to do something where my kids could play and explore and learn and go places even if we never left the house or front yard.”

Courtesy of Elliott Cramer, Elliott Cramer Photo + Video Merry Christmas from the Cramer Family…Vivian, 6, (left) and her brother Theodore, 4, pose for a holiday photo in their living room in a sleigh and reindeer made of cardboard by their father, Elliott Cramer.  

The photographer and owner of Elliott Cramer Photo + Video had many of his jobs and projects canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus. Most of his work is commercial. Sometimes his work requires him to to travel, but the pandemic has caused him to spend a lot more time at home with his daughter Vivian, 6, who is in first grade, and son Theodore, 4.

The Kent State University photo illustration graduate has been documenting the entire process, beginning with drawings on his iPad. He posts it all on his website and via Instagram.

“I am a little bit of a kid at heart,” Cramer said. “I like to enjoy time with my kids. They love it. I feel like this will be an experience they remember for a long time.”

There is a cardboard sleigh in the living room made from a box from a freezer the family recently purchased. It became the backdrop for the family holiday photo. There are also reindeer and snowflakes. Stuffed animals appear in most of the photos. Vivian’s monkey, named Jack, that her grandmother gave her for her first birthday makes several appearances.

Courtesy of Elliott Cramer, Elliott Cramer Photo + Video Stephanie Cramer (left) steadies a photographer’s light while her son Theodore, 4, poses for a picture as a pirate.  

“There is something magical about this sleigh,” Cramer said. His wife Stephanie, a Spanish teacher for the South Side Area School District in Beaver County, often has some thoughts on what her husband and children are doing.

“She tells us to get this stuff out of the house,” Vivian said as she smiled. “I like to do the painting and I like drawing too. We are having so much fun.”

Cramer said his wife has been his biggest supporter. She’s even gotten involved with some of the construction and photo shoots.

His children are having a blast.

Courtesy of Elliott Cramer, Elliott Cramer Photo + Video Theodore, 4, holds the head of a robot  

“I like making the robots,” said Theodore. “I like robots.”

Courtesy of Elliott Cramer, Elliott Cramer Photo + Video Elliott Cramer (right) helps his daughter Vivian, 6, with a glue gun to make an airplane made from a cardboard box.  

Cramer includes the children in making the items, from painting to gluing to asking for their input on what they want the scene to look like. He also creates a “how-to” for others who might want to enjoy the same experience with their little ones.

“I was tentative about sharing what we are doing on social media, but I’ve been encouraged to do it. If it can inspire other moms and dads to do this, then that would be great,” said Cramer. “You don’t have to be an artist to do what I am doing, either. I say, be the queen of quarantine and make a crown. Never know where your imagination will take you.”

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