Girl and Boy Valentine's Day Box with Apple Barrel Craft Paints

Thank you Apple Barrel Craft Paints for sponsoring this post. You can find these Apple Barrel Craft supplies at a Michaels near you! 

The Valentine's Day classroom party was always my favorite classroom party of the year when I was a kid.  My mom would return from the store with the big packs of Juicy Fruit gum and we'd get busy taping an individual stick of gum to each Valentine.  Do your kids decorate their own Valentine's Day box at home?  If so, we're going to show you how to create a stand-out Girl and Boy Valentine receptacle with only a few inexpensive supplies from Apple Barrel Craft Paints.

We'll start with the girl's Valentine's Day box:

 We made sure to save the shoe boxes from a recent shoe upgrade.  My daughter picked out the paint provided by Apple Barrel Craft Paints in the colors she wanted to use and a few simple stencils.

 She painted the outside of the box and inside of the lid purple.  The application was nice and smooth and covered well considering the bright orange background.  It took 2 complete applications and dried quickly between coats to keep her interest in the project.

 She used a stencil to make the top of an ice cream cone:

Then used the triangle stencil to make an ice cream cone:

 The she highlighted the scoops of ice cream with a little white paint:

 Another ice cream cone.  Banana ice cream.

 We got the hot glue gun out to glue a scallop edged ribbon around the inside of the lid to trim the lid:

She got this circle hole punch with other craft supplies for Christmas, so she punched some scrap book page circles and added the adhesive cardboard letters:

To make sure her friends know to lift the lid to insert the Valentine, she traced an arrow and cut it out of scrap book paper:

She loves how it turned out.

 Top view:

 Now for the Boy Valentine's Day Box:

 We used a dark blue denim ribbon and trimmed the front of the box and sides of the lid:

 Then painted a green rectangle across the top  using the Apple Barrel Craft Paint to create a football field.  The paints come in matte and glossy finish.

Next, we took the hot glue gun and made rows of hot glue and sprinkled with candy sprinkles for the fans in the stadium.

 Glue, sprinkle, glue, sprinkle, glue sprinkle....

 Next came the white lines and yard markers.  Then, blue end zones:

I thought maybe we had plastic goal post collected from a cupcake at some point, but we didn't.  We brainstormed how we could make a goal post and came up with sucker sticks (you could also snip the ends off a Q-tip).  Using my daughter's washi tape, we wrapped the sticks to create the goal post.

My son went upstairs to check his football helmet collection and returned with a Broncos' helmet and a Seahawks' helmet.  Two holes were poked into the end zones to insert to goal posts.

 The football stadium Valentine box was created in about 20 minutes.  

He'd rather see Green Bay in the Superbowl this year (not sure how this CO boy became a Packer's fan!), but he'll take the Broncos.  Go Broncos!  If they don't win, he can stick the Green Bay helmet on top of the box before Valentine's Day.  He also said he'll probably cut a slot in the top of the box instead of lifting the lid.  They are both super excited to take their Valentine's Day boxes to school for their classroom parties.  Some of their friends have already seen the finished product and they're begging to make a classroom Valentine's Day box at our house.

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