Richard Scarry CarrotMobile

For the Halloween of 2025, I recreated the iconic carrot car from beloved picture book author Richard Scarry with my dad. Our goal was to create something fun and large, and to avoid creating too much waste while doing so.

-Craigslist electric ride-on kids car.

-Chicken wire

-PVC pipe, glue and connectors

-paper for paper mache + white glue

-Paint

-Plastic fern from amazon

We looked on craigslist for an old ride-on electric car. There are tons of these things sitting out in peoples yards. We found one, and it was missing a battery, so we supercharged it using a battery adaptor for a 18V Milwaulkee drill battery. This actually helped the car go faster as tool batteries are stronger than the ones sold with the typical ride-on cars.

Framework- I used random screws & tape to attach a framework of PVC pipes onto the car frame. The could be done in many ways- using thin pieces of wood, etc. but my dad had some old plastic pipes lying around. He used a torch to help bend the piping, but I don't think that I would recommend that! Instead you can use 45 degree pipe fittings.

I covered the framework with chicken wire and zip tied it to the frame. I was worried about directly papermache'ing to the chicken wire, so I added some tape first. I don't think that the tape was probably required, but it did smooth out some curves.

Paper Mache! I used brown paper bags from the supermarket because its thicker paper and I used the paper mache recipe where you have a 1:1 ratio of water to glue- to help create a harder body to the car. I both soaked the paper strips and brushed alot of water/glue onto the body of the car to make sure everything stuck tight and bonded. Its a good thing our garage was already a mess, because this is a messy, messy step

We got a small quart of household latex paint from the hardware store and my dad helped me to paint the papermache.

I added a plastic fern into the back of the carrot as a finishing touches and I was ready to roll!