Thrifty Thursday • Cereal Box Repurpose

Things that need to be filed or shred is a constant annoyance to me.  I hate to do it, but if I don't do it consistently, we end up with a messy pile that is an eye sore.  I have a thrifty tutorial showing you what I did to go...

Supplies needed:

A cereal box (13" tall x 9.5" wide x 3" deep)
scissors
ruler
adhesive
pen
paper cutter
12 x 12 designer paper





First, let's cut our paper to cover the cereal box.

I want to hang my box on the side of the hutch, so I did not cover the back of the box or the inside part of the box front.

For the front:  10" x 9" (1 of these)  - if you want to cover the inside of the front of the box you can cut another, but cut it 9.5" x 9"

For the exterior sides:  12" x 3" (2 of these)

For the interior sides:  9" x 3" (2 of these)

For the inside back of the box:  12" x 9.5" (1 of these)

For the bottom of the box:  9.5" x 3" (1 of these)

Let's get started!

1-2.  Cut off the top flaps of the box as shown in the pictures below.

3.  On the front of the cereal box, measure 9" from the bottom of the box to the top.

4.  Draw a line across where we will want to cut off the excess at the top of the box.

5.  Only cut the front part of the box out, not the sides.

6.  We now want to trim the rest of the box so that it is only 12" tall, so measure and mark 12" from the bottom of the cereal box to the top.

7-8.  It's easier if you cut the sides first, so you can draw your line with your ruler.

9.  Now cut down your line.

10.  Lay your box on it's side, and use your ruler to draw a line from the corner of the side and back of the box and the corner of the side and front of the box.

11-12.  Cut the triangle off to create the slanted box as shown below.

13.  Get ready to glue your designer paper!  I used some Stampin' Up designer paper that I purchased a few years ago.

14.  For the 9.5" x 10" rectangle for the front of the box, snip about a 1/4" square from each of the 4 corners.  The front of the box is actually 9.5" tall x 9" wide, but I wanted the paper to wrap around the edges for a more finished look.

15-16.  See how the paper wraps around to the side of the box.  I used a glue stick to glue it in place, and used my scissors to crease the paper in place.

17.  Now glue your 12" x 3" strips onto the exterior sides of the cereal box.  Fold the top of the paper down over the side of the box and glue onto the interior side of the box (it will make a triangle on the inside of the box).

18.  Glue your 12" x 9.5" sheet of paper onto the interior side of the back of the box.  Fold about 1/4" of the paper over the top of the cereal box and glue it in place on the back of the box.  This will leave a 1/4" gap uncovered at the bottom of the interior of the box, but you won't be able to see it since the box is so deep.

19.  Now take the two 9" x 3" strips and glue them into the interior sides of the cereal box under your folded over triangles.

20.  Glue your 3" x 9.5" strip onto the bottom of the box, and you are done!

I will most likely go back and embellish the front of the box some more, but for the sake of time and wanting to post the tutorial tonight...this is what I've got!

Hope you enjoyed!

Eva

Linking up with...

 

Thrifty Thursday • Baby Food Jars

So, I tend to never throw things away.  My hubby calls me a pack rat (not a hoarder).  I usually have to give him permission to just throw things away if it's still boxed up.  I obviously don't need it if I haven't unpacked it in over a year!  As long as I don't see something, I won't even remember I had it, right?

The thing is, I always save things with the thought that I will use it for this or that at some later date.  I've said before that I have lots of little ideas but lacked the time.  The bad thing is I let too much time go by, and things like boy scout popcorn tins, spaghetti sauce jars and empty tuna cans that I had planned to cover in pretty designer papers end up piled up in a garbage bag unused.  My hubby says if I haven't done anything with them in over a year then they need to be tossed or recycled.  I kept the popcorn tins, parted with the tuna cans.

Over the past few months I started saving Stella's baby food jars.  I thought they would be great for storing little things like safety pins and paper clips.  Of course, my hubby didn't know why I would need 20 little jars full of safety pins and paper clips (reasonable concern), so unless I would be giving my jars full of pins and clips to friends, they needed to be recycled.

But then I found a way to keep them without filling them with pins and clips.  They are perfect for storing buttons and sorting them by color!  I had enough buttons in such a variety of colors that I almost didn't have enough baby food jars!

Another way I have been using the smaller baby food jars are to store my ribbon rolls.  When left on the spool, ribbon tends to get loose.  I find it annoying always having to tighten it and either tape or pin it in place.  Plus, little miss someone likes to unravel the ribbon spools, too!

So I just started unraveling the ribbon and wrapping it around my finger, and once I had a tight roll I placed it right into the jar.  It keeps it all in place and pretty easy to pull out as much as I need at an given time and tuck it right back away.  Best fit for 1.5" x 4 yd ribbon spools.

I've also made a jar into a project take along.  I threw in some pieces of ribbon (or fabric), thread, buttons and a needle and had just what I needed to hand sew a Snappee flower on the go!

What other ways have you used or would you use a baby food jar?

Thanks for reading,

Eva

Linking up with:

and the Shabby Creek Cottage