Fall Treasure Box
By: Amanda Formaro
Difficulty: Easy
Age: 6 and up
Average User Rating:
Kids love to collect, but where to keep all those odds and ends that your little ones find? This project is easy to make and creates a lasting holder for all those fun treasures and trinkets that your kids hold dear.
What you'll need:
- Shoe box with lid
- Liquitex Basics Gesso
- Red and yellow acrylic paint
- Large paintbrush
- Construction paper (we used red, yellow, green, brown and orange)
- White craft glue
- Water
- Foam alphabet paint stamps
- Acrylic sealer spray, matte
How to make it:
- Remove any labels that may be on the shoe box.
- Paint outside of box and lid with Liquitex Basics Gesso. Allow to dry completely.
- Once dry, paint box and lid with red acrylic paint. Let dry completely.
- In a small bowl, mix together equal parts of water and white glue to create a paintable, yet milky, homemade decoupage mixture.
- Tear construction paper into 1-2” pieces.
- Working about 3-5” at a time, paint the decoupage mixture onto the top surface of the box.
- Place construction paper pieces on top of the decoupage, then put a layer of decoupage mixture over the top of the construction paper pieces. Construction paper pieces should overlap each other a little and will create a mosaic affect. Use alternating colors so that you don’t have too much brown or too much green in one spot, etc.
- Continue with this process all over the outside of the box, leaving only the rim of the lid red.
- Using the alphabet stamps and yellow acrylic paint, stamp the words “My Treasure” onto the front of the box lid rim.
- When the entire project is dry, spray with a coat or two of acrylic matte sealer.
Tips:
- To make your treasure box even fancier, line the inside of the box with yellow felt by gluing it to the inside bottom and up the inner sides.
- Decoupage medium can be purchased at any craft or discount department store, but you can easily make it yourself from white craft glue and water to achieve the same affect.
- This project can be a bit time consuming, so plan a snack break about halfway through so that your kids can get recharged.
