Upcycled Cardboard Gift Boxes

DIY Gift Boxes Made from Cardboard Boxes

What better way to show someone you love them than making them something by hand! We’ve upcycled our cardboard cereal and soda boxes into cute handmade gift boxes. Helping our little ones make gifts for others reinforces the idea of giving not just material objects, but giving time, effort, and thoughtfulness as well.

Giving gifts can be a wonderful growth experience for the giver as we teach them an appreciation for the efforts of others by giving our own time and energy. The child who has practiced purposeful gift giving will go on to be a more gracious gift receiver!

Teaching Kids to Reduce Waste

This project is also a great way to look at our waste in a new way. Finished with that cereal box? Not so fast! There is a summer’s worth of birthdays right around the corner. Why waste time and money on gift wrap which is headed straight for a landfill? The brown side of the packaging is a limitless canvas for most media. Paint, sharpies, glitter and glue! These boxes are the perfect thing for Teacher’s Appreciation gifts, Christmas stockings, Easter baskets, St Paddy’s Day leprechaun treats, even for gifts from the tooth fairy!

Using a template from Tiffany Threadgould for the pencil box and a template from Stuff You Can’t Have for the heart gift box, we put together these great boxes for our friend’s birthday. Another great chance to talk about recycling and what happens to things after we throw them in the bins for the trash man.

Copy and paste the templates into a word doc or use your photo software to re-size for the size box you want. Fold along the score lines and glue or tape it together!

Tip: A pizza cutter and a straight edge work great for scoring the fold lines.

For more DIY and eco-friendly projects, check out our blog page!