Welcome to our DIY Valentnine’s Card box tutorial!
Valentine’s day DIY’s are some of my favorite things to make…colorful, sparkly, full of love! That alone is enough to make me happy (and let’s be honest, I love any reason to do PINK DIY’s!) but there are a couple of other reasons that V-Day is one of my favorite times to craft!
DIY Inspo Needed
After Christmas, I am always DIYed out for a bit and by February I am needing a little bit of inspiration. So Valentine’s Day is a great way to ease back into my crafty ways! It is one of those holidays that you want to celebrate and for it to be cute, but you don’t want to spend a million dollars. And sometimes when we try to be creative on the cheap…that’s where our most inspired ideas come from!
I also love the nostalgia of Valentine’s Day. Growing up my mom always brought the craft box out for days before Valentine’s Day. We made our own Valentine’s day cards to give out, covered in a million pieces of glitter! We also saved old shoe boxes to make Card Boxes to sit pretty on our desks at school and hold all of our cards.
This Years DIY Goes Out To My Mom Friends…
When I thought about what DIY I wanted to do this year, I wanted to pay homage to all the little girls and boys that sit patiently in their chairs at school, collecting cards and secretly praying for that one special valentine! But I also wanted to do something that my mom friends could do with their kiddos to help get everyone in the spirit of the Holiday!
So this year, we threw those dusty ol shoeboxes out and are making our Valentine’s Day boxes from scratch…all with items that you can find around your house!
Supplies
- Cardboard box ( thank you Amazon!)
- Strong scissors or Exacto knife
- Hot glue gun or masking tape
- Elmers Glue
- Newspaper
- White Paint
- Colorful paint
The Instructions!
Step 1. Decide on your design. We did a simple heart traced it out on a piece of scrap paper first. Once you have your template, you will want to trace this onto your cardboard. Cut this out x2.
Step 2. Because we are making a 3D piece, you will want to cut out 2 strips of cardboard in the width that you want the sides to be. For ours, we choose to have it 2.5 inches wide to hold ALL the cards!
Now you have to get this ready to attach! Since the heart has a lot of curves at the top, I start one of the pieces at the top middle where the heart comes down to a point. to get your cardboard side ready, bend it against the side of your table – run it back and forth until you get a curve (without totally bending it!)
Pro-Tip I always cut these side pieces longer than I need. You can always cut them down but it is harder to add on!
Step 3. Grab your hot glue gun and apply a thick layer along the edge of your heart. Now grab your side piece. Starting at the point in the middle of the heart, apply your first side with the curved piece optioned over the top of the heart and ending at the bottom point. Once you have held this in place over your hot glue, this is where you can cut the extra at the bottom before moving on to the next side.
Repeat on the other side.
Once your sides are attached, grab your other heart shape and apply a generous amount fo glue around the edges. Now place the form that you just made on top of this and hold it into place until it is secure!
Step 4. Its time to Paper Mache!!
Paper Mache is super fun and a timeless craft. There are a lot of recipes out there but my personal fav is Glue and Water. I always start with 1 cup of glue and add 3/4 cup of water. You can always add more as you go. Mix and get to it!
Grab small pieces of newspaper ( i cut mine in about 1-inch strips that are 3 -4 inches long) and dip them in your glue mix. Start laying them out on the cardboard. Keep adding until your 3d piece is covered. I like to go back over mine with a second layer to give it a good texture.
Dry overnight. Or use a heat gun on low to help it dry. DO NOT dry it on hot as we did….your fire alarm will go off lol!
Step 5. Paint It White
Some might want to skip this step but don’t! You are going to want to coat your paper mache’ ed piece in white paint to avoid having the new paper show through your main color.
Step 6: Decorate! Decorate! Decorate!
Once it is white its time to choose your final color and paint it all over. Now its time to let your creative genes shone through! Paint it a solid color, bedazzle it, cover it in feathers….you do you here!
Step 7: Create A Opening in the top
After you have painted this white, determine how your box is going to sit and choose a top space to create a slit for your cards to go into! Take an exact knife and create a 1/2 inch by 3-inch spot to allow for cards to be dropped in.
And that’s it! Now you have the sweetest little DIY Valentine’s Day Card Box to house all your love notes and fun valentines!
We love this sweet little DIY Valentine’s Day Card Box craft because you can use it to create any kind of 3d form – from pinatas to giant letters! Just hold onto those Amazon Boxes!
You can watch us showing our city of Charlotte how to do make their own DIY Valentine’s Card Box here on Charlotte Today. If you are looking for more Valentine’s DIY’s, you can Check out this one and see how I made our giant XO Fringe Letters!
Happy Valentines Day!
