Valentine’s Day might mean kisses, hugs and greeting cards to grown-ups, but to kids it means chocolate, candy and classroom valentines. If your little ones are looking for a sweet way to stash their cards this year, we’ve got two great projects you can work on together this weekend.
Hanging Goody Bag
- Craft or scrapbooking paper
- Double-sided tape
- Tiny Prints Valentine’s Day stickers
Step One: Fold and Cut Paper
Fold the paper into the width you’d like to use for your goody bag. Make sure you have about an inch of extra space on one long side and one short side so you can fold them over to seal the bag.
Cut off the excess length if you think the paper is too long for the bag you’re envisioning, but don’t forget that one short side still needs to have the extra inch of buffer.
Next, trim the corners of the inch of buffer with clean, diagonal cuts.
Step Two: Fold and Tape the Edges
Add double-sided tape to the buffer paper on both the short and long sides, then fold them over and securely tape down the flaps to create a little bag that’s only open on one short end.
Step Three: Add Decorative Touches
We cut the tops of the bags with scalloped scissors and added personalized Valentine’s Day stickers for a little extra fun.
Step Four: Add Ribbon and Enjoy!
Punch a hole through both sheets of paper and thread ribbon through to create a hanger for the goody bag.
Aren’t they sweet? And the best part is, you can let the little ones decorate them just to their liking!
Valentine’s Day Cereal Box Backpack
- Cereal box
- Wrapping paper
- Confetti, poms, doilies, stickers and other fun decorations
Step One: Turn the Cereal Box into a Mailbox
Make three cuts into the top of the cereal box to create a mail flap. We recommend using a ruler and marker to draw out the lines you want to cut before you start in with your box cutter or scissors.
Step Two: Wrap the Box
This part gets a little tricky. Start by cutting an appropriate length of wrapping paper (as if you were wrapping a gift), but then make cuts into the paper where the mail flap hinges, as shown below:
Next you’ll want to trim the excess wrapping paper surrounding the flap portion, as you see Anum doing in the photo above.
When you’re ready, wrap the lid of the mail flap with the flap itself open (lying flat on the table), making sure to tuck the edges under so that none of the white will show when your child opens the box.
Don’t wrap it too tightly or it might not close!
Once the lid is done, continue wrapping the rest of the box as you normally would. The hard part is over!
Step Three: Add the Straps
We decided to braid our yarn because we were afraid it wouldn’t hold up to the stress. In any case, once you are ready to attach it, poke four evenly spaced holes into the box (two at the top and two at the bottom).
Thread the string or yarn through the bottom, tying a knot from the inside of the box to hold it in place. Then thread the yarn through the top of the box and tie a knot to secure it inside of the box once more, creating a strap your child can use to wear the box like a backpack.
Step Four: Add a Closure and Decorate!
We covered some buttons we had lying around with the same wrapping paper, then hot glued them to the lid and the top portion of the front of the box, along with a piece of string to serve as a closing mechanism.
Then we went nuts with decorations to create this fun, kid-friendly masterpiece!