Create Gorgeous Gift Boxes From Recycled Cereal Boxes! (For Purim, Of Course!)

Looking for an earth-friendly and gorgeous solution for mishloach manot (gifts of food for the Jewish holiday of Purim) packaging this year? Here's your answer: cereal boxes! Or for that matter any type of box with a non-printed side, and that can be easily opened and reassembled inside out. Start looking around and I'm sure you'll find lots of options in your very own kitchen.

You'll Need:

• cereal boxes
• light blue acrylic craft paint and paint brush
• round objects to use as stamps:large bottle caps, wine corks etc.
• purple puff paint or glittered fabric paint in a bottle applicator
• glue: tacky craft glue or a hot glue gun
• lavender ribbon

How To:

1. Find seams where cereal box is glued together, on one side and bottom.
2. Carefully open seams with a sharp knife, being careful not to tear box as much as possible
3. Flatten box on work surface and print with polka dots in this manner: Find a flat round object to use as a stamp, using a paint brush apply paint to object and firmly press onto box. Make sure you don't use too much paint and that paint is sticky, not runny.
4. Here's a photo of printing in this manner on paper:
5. Once paint has dried, decorate painted circles with dots of fabric paint. Keep it simple as shown in the photo of the finished box.
6. Once fabric paint is thoroughly dried (at least five to six hours, best overnight) reassemble box using original tabs, just inside out this time! You'll need strong tacky craft glue or a hot glue gun to handle this.
7. Decorate box with ribbon and make a tie closure by punching two holes in top of box just underneath slit of top tab (when tab is closed and on top of box.) Thread ribbon through the holes and up through the slit and tie a bow.
8. If you'll be using your box to hold heavy items, reinforce the bottom of the box with another piece of cardboard cut to fit exactly into the box and glued in place.
9. You can choose to make closed boxes as shown here, or cut off the top portion and make shopping- bag-shaped containers instead. Fill with pastel colored tissue paper or matching cellophane, and make ribbon handles, either one big one from side panel to side panel, or two smaller ones attached to front and back panels. Make holes for the ribbon handles with a hole punch or preferably with a scrapbooking grommet kit.

I hope you enjoyed this project, there's lots more to come, so check back everyday this week to see what types of containers you should be saving!