One of the greatest things about Valentine’s Day for children is the classroom party, who can resist all of that candy. But aside form the party another exciting thing about Valentine’s Day is passing out Valentine’s Day cards, children love to go home and count the cards. Not only do kids like to count the cards they also enjoy collecting them in something that they have designed. In classrooms around the United States you will find paper bags decorated with hearts, you can find normal paper bags, or you can find boxes either decorated or undecorated.
Even if you are a parent who isn’t very creative or you feel that you have no artistic talent you can still help your child make a great Valentine’s Day box using just cardboard and paper. Just think about how happy your child will be to have their own personal mailbox to receive Valentine’s Day cards in. But the best part is this project can be completed with things you probably already have sitting around the house, not only that but the project is fun and easy to do.
Here is the list of materials you will need to get started on your Valentine’s Day box.
Glue – depending on the age of the child you can use glue sticks, Elmer’s glue, or hot glue
Paper – you can use construction paper of any color, greeting cards, wrapping paper or regular computer paper
Box – some boxes that work great for this project are Girl Scout cookie boxes, tissue boxes, shoe boxes, cereal box, or small cardboard boxes
Markers/crayons
Scissors
Here are the steps you should follow to make a Valentine’s Day box.
Step one:
The first thing that you need to do depends on what type of box you are going to be using. If you are using a shoe box you might want to think about gluing the lid to the top of the box so that it can’t come off during transportation, this is entirely optional. If you are using any type of box besides a tissue box you are going to need to cut a slit in the top of the box so that you can have a place to slid in the cards. Remember Valentines are not very wide or long so you won’t need to have a huge hole. If you have young children doing this project you should complete this step for them.
Step two:
The next thing that you need to do is to prepare your decorations. You can cut out hearts from the contruction paper or you can cut out the designs on the wrapping paper. You can also draw your own designs on regular paper.
Step three:
Now that you have prepared your designs you are going to need to decide how you want to wrap your box, the key here is to wrap it like a Christmas present. You can use colored construction paper, wrapping paper or plain white paper, but keep in mind the color scheme of your decorations before deciding to wrap your box with the first two choices.
Step four:
Now you need to glue your decorations on to the wrapped box. Just remember to think about where you place your decorations before you glue them down, planning it out ahead of time with a small piece of tape is a good idea. You can also allow your child to draw on the box if they prefer that to cutting and pasting.
Step five:
Now you need to create a name tag for your Valentine’s Day box and glue it on. A great idea is to use a heart shaped name tag and write the name of the child with marker, outline it in glue and then sprinkle glitter over the glue (Great idea for an eye catching name tag!) Don’t forget to glue the name tag to the box.
Something to keep in mind is that you can use a mixture of glue to water (2 parts glue to 1 part water) to lightly paint the outside of your box when you are done, this will make it shiny and more durable.