In classrooms across Chicagoland, when the calendar flips to February, kids eagerly anticipate sweets-filled Valentine’s Day parties and those piles of little Valentine tokens of friendship from classmates. If your school opts for decorating bags or the traditional boxes to hold those valentines, a few local creative moms share some cool inspiration to get you started.
Even office workers now get in on the fun by challenging coworkers to a design-off with pun-filled boxes to high-tech QR code-enabled boxes! #ValentineBoxChallenge.
Whether you are a DIY enthusiast or prefer the convenience of a ready-made box (stores sell kits!), it’s important to remember that the true magic of Valentine’s Day lies in sharing.
Feel inspired? Share your own Valentine’s Day boxes by emailing editor@chicagoparent.com.
Alien Invasion
When June Cudanes asked her son Wendalino what he wanted for his Valentine’s box, she says he really wanted Alien from “Toy Story.” The family was up to the challenge, she says.
“So we used some Target boxes from deliveries we received, Googled papier-mache and here is the final product. It was a fun family project for all of us,” she says.
Let’s Play 2
Pamela Manicioto says she loves making Valentine’s boxes with her sons Enzo, 7, and Luca, 9. Two of her most recent ones were definitely home runs!
To create a mini Wrigley Field, she wrapped a shoe box in grocery store paper bags and printed out the marquee and scoreboard. She says she bought green paper and “brick” paper at Hobby Lobby and her son got extra creative by adding a piece of her faux plants and making pennants out of toothpicks.
When it came to creating Charmander from Pokémon, she says she bought scrapbooking paper from Hobby Lobby, then covered an old Amazon box. After cutting out the eyes, mouth, arms, feet and heart, she glued everything onto the box.
Score for Luke
Stephenie Goostree and her son Luke, 8, worked together on his Valentine’s box with a basketball theme.
She makes it sound simple enough even for the non-crafty parents among us: orange construction paper, a Sharpie to draw the lines, a bath toy for the basket and a ruler to make the pole!
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