Upcycled Cardboard Decorations

Here is a great craft that can be done at any time of the year, and one that uses those empty food boxes that are in your recycling bin.

Materials:

• Empty cardboard food boxes that haven't been flattened.
• Tape
• Scrapbook, construction, wrapping, or tissue paper.
• Pencil for tracing
• Glue (we used a glue tape that you can get from any craft or office supply store)
• Scissors
• Other embellishments such as ribbon, crayons, markers, stickers, glitter, buttons, cotton balls, etc.

Directions:

1. Gather your food boxes and be sure to remove the box top labels, if there are any. Send box top labels to your child's school. Tape the boxes shut.
2. Rather than wrapping the boxes like a present, trace each side of the box, then cut out and glue each piece to the sides (this way you can skip the back to save paper if it won't be seen). We cut ours a little bit smaller than the sides, so we had a border. Using glue tape that can be purchased at a craft or office supply store may work better than a glue stick.
3. Decorate the boxes with ribbon, crayons, markers, etc. You can also use letters that you trace onto construction paper, or use letters that you print off the computer, or use letters from other recyclables to spell something.
4. If you are doing this project with a large group of kids, you could have each child decorate a box or a letter, then put all the boxes together to spell a word. This is a great way to teach children about teamwork, and that everyone does things differently. The boxes may look different, but one is not better than the other, they are just different.

Quick links to get you where you want to go: