We all know what February is all about. We know when we go to the stores, say a grocery store or party store that we expect to see shelves of fully stocked chocolates, flowers and hearts. Lots and lots of hearts. But as any parent or guardian of schoolchildren knows, February is a call for the Valentine’s Day shoe box project. Not familiar with this? This is when your child will decorate or create what will be the child’s Valentine’s Day mailbox. The child takes this fully decorated mailbox to school in hopes that it will be filled with animated Valentine’s Day exchange paper cards that have candy attached to them. Because let’s face it, there aren’t enough holidays or birthdays in the year to satisfy a child’s sweet tooth. I personally do enjoy these types of projects because they don’t require too much out of me. This requiring any strenuous physical activity is as close to a zero as they come.
My older son loves Minecraft at the moment and requested the Minecraft TNT Block and my younger son is really loving Super Mario Brothers and asked for Luigi. Naturally I tried talking them both into doing Mario and Luigi but as expected, I quickly got turned down. I tried!
So for this project usually you’ll find me going through my closet in a desperate attempt to find shoe boxes that we “may have lying around.” Not this year! As I searched Target’s website for something we “needed” at home I came across this marvelous pre-assembled Valentine’s Day shoe box or mailbox. They appeared to have them in several different colors and for $3 dollars! I may or may not have heard angels singing, because the dreaded search for shoe boxes was finally laid to rest.
Our do-it-yourself Minecraft TNT Block…
With a quick google search, here’s the Minecraft TNT Block we had for our viewing pleasure and reference during for this project.
Our supplies, a pre-assembled shoe box from Target, Aleene’s original tacky glue, I prefer this over Elmer’s glue, it’s stronger and works on all types of materials, you can find it at any craft store, xacto knife, pencil, construction paper and scissors.
The awkward photo has a purpose – the red although not too much of a dark color will make it hard for you to use the xacto knife. Hold it up by a light – or in my case the ceiling fan and begin to cut.
With a back crayon and ruler, draw out the lines on the lid as thin or thick as you’d like.
Bring down the line on the side of the lid as well.
I placed the lid for reference however on the bottom part of the box, continue the lines downward that you drew on the lid. The lines should go from the top to the bottom of the bottom portion of the box. Hope that makes sense.
Cut out a letter T block like letter from a white colored paper. This will be used as a guide to then cut the letters in black construction paper. Be sure to make enough of each letter to cover all four sides of the box. There will be 8 letter T’s.
Minecraft has a unique way of making the letter N. I used a white colored pencil. This will make the shape easier to see when cutting. Make them all the facing the same direction and later when you’re ready to glue on the box, just turn the second cut out upside down. Be sure to trace enough of these to make N’s for all four sides. You have to make 8 of these.
Here you can see how the lines will align when the box is closed.
Cut out white pieces of construction paper that will only cover the middle/bottom part of the box. Just make it large enough for your letters to fit. Use a gray crayon to make a shadow-y effect on the side of the black lines. For the name, I used the same Minecraft unique style letter N to make out his name.
And our do-it-yourself Luigi from Super Mario Bros.
Google also helped us decide on this Luigi for reference.
The lid will be Luigi’s face, glue a peach construction paper, being careful NOT to glue the center. You will need to cut the pre-cut slot with something pointy and sharp. I used an xacto knife – but using a steak knife I’m sure will do the same job.
With the peach colored construction paper continue to now cut smaller pieces for the sides of the box and then glue to the lid. You can always lay the box down on the construction to get the measurements before cutting.
For his eyes, work your way down that way you can see how big or small the inner circles have to be. You do the same for the rest of the detailing on his face.
Luigi’s face includes the hat with the letter “L” on it, eyebrows in black, eyes, nose, black mustache, peach bottom lip and red tongue. His mouth turned out to be the slot that the box had pre-cut. This is where the cards will go through.
For the “pants,” cover the bottom entire portion of the box in green, all around. And then do the same in a smaller size in blue. Cut out four pieces of blue construction paper for the suspenders- remember the back will also show suspenders, making a small v-shape on the bottoms. On one side which would be the front of your Luigi, cut two yellow circles for the buttons.
So, this is Luigi without the name.
Our final product includes his name. I just cut out his name in block like letters on yellow construction paper to match the buttons.
Hope you enjoyed these projects as much as we did making them!
Mom Life With Chiari 