Valentine Collection Box Made Out of Cereal Box Tutorial

While perusing Pintrest I found these incredibly CUTE pinatas.  I don't have a need for pinatas at this time but did need to come up with an idea for a collection box for Valentine's Day.  Here is how they meet....

Cereal boxes are going to be all different sizes so you'll have to make a template that fits your box (the sides of the heart should hang over the edge of the box.

Trace the heart on each side and cut as shown below.

The sides of the box will fold in and become the bottom and the handle.  Use masking tape too join the edges.  You could also cut the top sides off and make a completely different handle.  I was going for easy.

If the sides on the bottom are not long enough cut a strip from the scraps of box.  I put this piece on the inside and then taped and figured to would have extra support that way.

Tape the top flaps together to make a handle.

Paint with whatever you have on hand.  It doesn't have to be perfect because you will be covering it up.  OR you can stop right here and have your child put stickers on it, stamp it, color it, whatever.....be creative.

I want my preschool students to be able to decorate their own so they will be taking tissue paper squares and gluing (or Mod Podging) them to the box.  This is most easily achieved by applying the tissue paper when the paint is still wet and using a brush to brush the glue over top.

Easy enough.  I think they will be able to do it without too much mishap.

Here is where the pinata idea came into play.  I originally was going to do the entire thing in pinata style but realized this was not going to be kid-friendly.  I will have them do their entire box with tissue paper squares.

I cut strips of tissue paper and glued them on for the pinata style.

On the handle will be every one's name.  I printed them out instead of having them write their own name so that when the children pass out their cards, they will be able to match names much easier.  They sit nicely on a flat surface and because they are flat, they will not take up much space when all 10 will be lined up.

They could also be hung on coat hooks.

There it is.  Simple.  Inexpensive.  Cute!

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