Making Your Own Paper Surprise Boxes

The other day I opened up a box of cream cheese and I noticed that if I opened it up completely and laid it flat that I could use it for a pattern to make another paper box. 🙂 So that’s what I want to share with you today. The next time you buy cream cheese, save the box!

I used a piece of cardstock for making my box. Lay your pattern on the piece of cardstock. My pattern box fit just right in one direction on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of cardstock.

Trace around the outside of the pattern box using a pencil.

Cut it out along the line you just drew. Erase any pencil marks that you can still see after you finish cutting.

Using the pattern box as a guide, make a fold on your box every place the pattern has a fold. It’s very helpful to lay a ruler across the paper in the place you want the fold to be. This will give you an edge to press against and keep the fold straight.

I made all my folds that go in the same directions first.

Then turn your box and make all the folds in the other direction. For a lot of the folds, you can see easily where the fold should be and use the edges for a guide for your ruler. One place that there wasn’t an easy mark was the part on the top of the box that folds down inside the box when it’s closed. I laid the pattern back on top of my box, bent the pattern up and made 2 small marks where the fold needed to be.

Now all the folds have been put in our box and it’s time to put it together!

Oops, I’m getting ahead of myself! 😉 Before you glue/tape the box together, turn the box over and decorate the outside.

Since St. Patrick’s Day is in March, you might like to make your box for that holiday.

NOW to put it together! 😉 Fold the box up and put a little glue or double sided tape on the small tabs that fold inside the front of the box.

Do the same for the back side…put glue or tape on the small tabs that fit inside the box.

Close the top of the box and stick the front tab inside. Great job! You’ve made your first paper box! 🙂

Don’t forget to hide something fun inside the box before you share it with that special person! These could be used for any holiday or special occasion that comes along. Just decorate your box to fit the occasion. And maybe even hide the box to be found at the end of a treasure hunt! 🙂

I hope you will have fun making your own surprise boxes! 🙂

Turkey Headbands

Yep, you read that right…turkey headbands! It seems like a lot of folks have gone from celebrating Halloween straight to Christmas preparations, but I think we should enjoy Thanksgiving first! So here’s a Thanksgiving craft to do with the kiddos that will also make for a cute photo op on Thanksgiving Day. 😉

You will need a piece of brown or black construction paper, some scraps of different colored construction paper, a small piece of cardboard or cardstock, scissors, a black marker or crayon and glue or double sided tape.

Cut 2 strips about 1 1/2″ wide the length of the brown construction paper. Make sure that 2 pieces put together will fit around the head of the child making this. You can cut more strips if needed.

Tape or glue 2 narrow ends together to make a longer strip for the headband.

Wrap the strips around your child’s head so the headband is snug enough to stay in place. Tape or glue the other 2 ends together too. Your headband will now look like a circle.

Now let’s make the turkey parts! Using the piece of cardboard or cardstock, make a pattern in the shape of a narrow leaf or feather.

Use the pattern to trace around the feather on each scrap piece of colored construction paper.

Cut out each feather.

You know the red thing that hangs down by the turkey’s beak? It’s called a snood. You can draw one on a piece of red construction paper. Don’t worry about being exact here. Just draw something similar to this:

Cut it out using your scissors. Next, draw 2 fairly big circles on white paper for the turkey’s eyes. You might have a tiny glass you can use to trace around to make your circles.

Using a black marker or crayon, color 1 dot on each white circle for the eye pupil.

Cut a nice sized triangle out of orange paper for the turkey’s beak.

Ok, we have all the pieces ready so let’s put the turkey headband together! You can use glue or double sided tape. I went with the tape. First glue/tape the orange triangle on for the beak.

Put the snood on next, right at the corner of the beak.

It’s time to add the eyes! You can put them on in any direction you like. I put the black dots close together, but you can experiment with the eyes to see how you want your turkey to look.

Apply the feathers to the inside of the back of the headband. You can put on as many feathers as you like.

Once the feathers are attached, your turkey headband is ready to wear! (Unless the glue needs to dry first.)

If you have more than one child making a turkey headband, you can customize them so each child’s look a bit different from the others. I tried to get Rusty (our dog) and my husband to model my headband for you, but both said they would rather not. 😉 Have fun and don’t forget to take some pictures!

Easy Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

Thanksgiving is just a week away! It’s time to make a fun Thanksgiving Turkey!

You’ll need an empty toilet paper roll, some different colored paper, pencil, glue and/or tape, scissors, a piece of thin cardboard or cardstock, 2 wiggly eyes and you might want some markers.

If you would like to color your turkey’s body (the toilet paper roll) with the markers, go ahead and do that first. I decided since the toilet paper roll was already brown, I would use it as is. Glue the wiggly eyes onto the turkey’s body.

Let’s make the turkey’s beak next. Cut out a small rectangle from either orange or yellow paper.

Fold the rectangle in half, bringing the 2 shorter sides together.

Keeping the folded side up, cut from approximately the middle of the bottom side up to the right hand corner.

Make the same type of cut up to the upper left hand side, forming a folded triangle.

Still keeping the folded edge at the top, glue the bottom side of the triangle onto the turkey below his eyes.

Cut another small rectangle from red paper to make the turkey’s wattle. No need to be perfect, just cut something similar to the one in the following picture.

And glue it on the turkey beside his beak.

It’s time to make some feathers. Using the thin cardboard or cardstock, draw a simple feather shape to use as the pattern for making feathers for the turkey’s tail. (It doesn’t need to be perfect. The feathers will overlap each other and hide any flaws.) 😉

Trace around the feather pattern on several different colors of paper. I used 6 different colors but if you don’t have that many colors, make more than one of the colors you have so you end up with 6 feathers.

Cut the feathers out. This is great practice for kids in using their small motor skills.

Glue the feathers to the back side of the turkey, but put glue only on the bottom part of the feathers. Only put glue on the part that will be up against the turkey’s body or where it lays on another feather.

And your Thanksgiving turkey is finished and ready to be part of your home’s decorations for the holiday! What’s nice about this turkey is that nobody will be eating him! 😉