In my experience, if you send a kid wearing pockets outside to play, she’ll collect all sorts of wonderful treasures that she’ll want to keep. Glittery rocks, acorn tops, an errant marble, the teeniest tiniest shell, etc. Instead of having these finds scattered throughout the house — on the kitchen island, on top of the dryer, in my jewelry box — I thought it was time Annabel and I made a special box that would keep all these things together on her dresser. A box she would be in charge of.
I took a kids shoe box (they’re smaller and cuter than adult-sized ones) and wrapped the bottom and the lid separately in the purple paper she had chosen. It’d be easier to use a large sheet of paper, but we used 12 x 12" square sheets of scrapbook paper so I had to be a little. . . er. . . creative in wrapping it. At least it’s fade resistant!
We picked a bag of bright-colored pom-poms for the top and foam dinosaur stickers for the sides. I dumped the pom-poms on the table and started applying a large amount of white glue in one corner of the lid. As I glued my way from corner to corner, Annabel grabbed pom-poms and stuck them on. I like the randomness of them. We filled the edges in with the smaller pom-poms and we let it dry for a day or two.
Annabel is protective of her special box. Her brother is not to go near it. Of course, the neon pom-poms are a beacon, but so far so good. She even took it to school and let everyone see the treasures inside. This is quite possibly the best project we've done together.
Have fun making your own special boxes!
xo Karin
