Cereal Box Grocery List Notepad

I raided the recycling bin for today's project, a grocery list notepad. There's a magnet on the back so that it can hang on the fridge. 

You could use the same concept to make a holiday wish list, a place to write phone messages, a to-do list, or anything else. It can hang from a filing cabinet or inside a locker. Affiliate links below. 

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Cereal Box Grocery List Notepad

Materials: 

• cardboard boxes (I used Golden Grahams, Shredded Wheat and Triscuits)
• lined 5" x 8" notepad
• craft glue
• magnet tape

Steps: 

Use scissors to cut out the letters to spell GROCERIES (or whatever title you want). Cut an extra strip from a cereal box that is the same width as the top of the notepad and long enough to hold the entire message. 

Glue the letters to the cardboard strip, then glue the strip to the top of the notepad. Make sure you are adhering it only to the top strip and not to the paper itself. 

Add a generous amount of magnetic tape to the back of the notepad. 

Now all you need to do is to hang your list. Make sure there's a pen or pencil nearby. When it's time to go shopping, just tear off the top sheet and you're good to go. 

Cereal Box Art Inspired by Clementine Hunter's Zinnias

Are you familiar with Clementine Hunter? She was a self-taught folk artist who started painting in the 1930's when she was in her fifties. Many of her paintings were done from memory of her life as a black farm laborer on a Louisiana plantation. Some depict farm chores, while others show weddings and other celebrations. 

Clementine Hunter had no formal education of any sort, and certainly no art education. She started painting using cast-off brushes and tubes of paint from an artist who visited the plantation, creating her artwork on any surface she could find (including cardboard boxes, gourds, window shades, and bottles). She was also skilled in sewing, making quilts, tapestries, and other textiles, primarily from scraps and repurposed materials. Many show elements of plantation life. 

While much of Hunter's artwork depicts her life as a farm laborer, she had another favorite subject: zinnias. 

I selected her 1965 "Zinnias in a Pot" as the inspiration for artwork of my own. Hunter's artwork is oil on board.

Source

My artwork is acrylic on cereal boxes.

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Cereal Box Art Inspired by Clementine Hunter's Zinnias

Materials:

• cereal boxes
• Folk Art paint
• scissors
• glue

Steps: 

Open up several cereal boxes and paint large swaths of yellow, blue, and green. Use a variety of shades to create interest. Create flower shapes using reds, pinks, and whites. 

Trim the yellow to make a base for the artwork, then cut a pot and handle from blue. Cut leaves, stems, the trim for the pot, and flowers.

Glue everything together, starting from the bottom. Attach the trim and handle to the vase, then glue that to the background. Add the stems and lower leaves. Then start layering flowers and leaves. It creates really neat dimension. Finally, accent the center of each flower with small bits. 

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Clementine Hunter and loved using her style to create with different media. There were times that I was frustrated because my painted cardboard wouldn't do what her oil paints did (flower centers in particular), but it was satisfying to work through the challenge and create something that stays true to the original but has plenty of me. 

Cereal Box Beach Mosaic

It's been a while since I've shared a mosaic, which is surprising because I love making mosaics. I find the process very relaxing. Oddly, I don't find beaches, the subject of today's mosaic, relaxing at all. Forests are much more relaxing to me. Anyway, I'd encourage you to give this project a try. 

Cereal Box Beach Mosaic

Materials:

• cereal boxes
• scissors
• glue

Steps:

Cut a base from the inside of a cereal box. Mine is 5.5" x 6". You can make it whatever size you want, but keep in mind that if it is too small, it's very difficult to show details. If it's too large, it will take a lot of time and a lot of cereal boxes to finish. 

Sketch your design on the plain side of the base, then pick your colors. I cut chunks from a variety of cereal boxes to test what colors I thought I'd be using. I went with Rice Krispies Blue for the sky and the darker Crispix Blue for the water. I originally planned for the umbrella to have Raisin Bran Purple in addition to the Golden Grahams Yellow and Apple Jacks Green that I ended up using. I'd planned to use pictures of cereal for the sand, but eventually went with the sand colors of Cranberry Almond Crunch. 

It's easiest to start with the large sections that won't require special cuts - like the first four rows of the sky. Cut strips of blue, then cut those strips into tiles that are squarish. Add glue to a small section (I did one horizontal line at a time, starting at the top) then place the tiles into the glue. 

Continue working downward until you reach the umbrella. Cut angles off the tiles that touch the umbrella so that they neither leave a gap nor take the space of the umbrella. For now, leave empty spaces where the umbrella will go. 

Next, add the dark blue squares for the water. Again, leave gaps for the umbrella and trim tiles as needed to fit the spaces around the umbrella. 

Fill in the black umbrella handle (from the letters in Apple Jacks) and the purple towel next. 

Begin filling in the sand. Leave the space around the beach ball empty. 

Through trial and error, I discovered that the easiest way to do the umbrella and beach ball are to cut triangle tiles to the shapes you need. The last step is to fill in the remaining sand around the beach ball. 

In retrospect, I'm not happy with how I did the sand around the beach ball. It would have looked better if I'd stuck with square tiles, cut to fit around the beach ball vs. the triangular shapes I used. Other than that, I'm happy with my project and eager to try another cereal box mosaic. 

On a side note, you may be wondering why our family of three has such a diverse collection of cereal boxes. Ordinarily, we don't. We each have a few favorites, but when COVID-19 hit, I started using Amazon Pantry (affiliate link) and going to a store only for fresh or frozen items that wouldn't ship well. With free shipping and fast delivery for Prime members, Amazon Pantry was a no-brainer. In the early days of quarantine with people stocking up on dry goods, our favorites weren't always available, so we started branching out. Thus, plenty of colorful options for cereal box crafting!

Cereal Box and Newspaper Tree

Some of my favorite crafts are those made with materials reclaimed from the recycle bin. This tree is made entirely of painted cereal boxes and newspaper. 

Cereal Box and Newspaper Tree

Materials:

• cereal boxes
• newspaper
• Folk Art paint
• scissors
• glue

Steps:

Open up the cereal boxes to expose the insides. Paint one box with shades of blue to make a sky and another with shades of green for the leaves. Paint some newspaper with shades of brown.

Cut a rectangle from the blue cereal box to use as the background. Layer a piece of green on top to make the grass. Cut a tree shape from the newspaper. Glue the trunk in place, leaving the branches free. 

Cut a bunch of rounded shapes from the green cereal box. Layer the largest ones under the branches, gluing them in place. 

Finally, glue the smaller green pieces on top of the branches, anchoring them. 

I've started hoarding cereal boxes because I have a bunch of ideas for additional projects. Expect to see some coming soon!

Cereal Box Panda

I love using free crafting materials for kids' crafts. There's so much you can do with cardboard tubes, soup cans, lids, and bottles. Cereal boxes are another fabulous free craft material. Follow along to turn a cereal box into a panda in just a few easy steps. Affiliate links below. 

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Cereal Box Panda

Materials:

• cereal box
• construction paper (black, white)
• scissors
• glue
• black pen
• large googly eyes

Steps:

Cover the cereal box with black construction paper. 

Cut the face from white construction paper and glue it to the front of the cereal box. Cut an arc from the remaining white construction paper and glue it in place to make the panda's tummy. 

Hold two pieces of black construction paper together (or attach them using paperclips) so that when you cut out the eye spots and ears, you get a matching pair. When you cut the ears, make them an inch longer than you want the finished ears to be. Fold over the excess to make a flap. Add glue to the flaps, then attach them to the top of the cereal box. Glue the eye spots to the face. 

Use a single piece of black construction paper to cut a nose. Glue it in place, then draw on the mouth. Glue the googly eyes to the face. 

Cereal Box Black Bear

Three states (Alabama, Louisiana, and New Mexico) have all named the black bear as their state mammal. Those aren't the states that come to my mind when I think of bears, but it turns out that the American Black Bear is the world's most common bear species. It is found throughout the United States with a large population thought to be twice that of all other bear species combined. Another fascinating fact: many black bears are not black! This cute cereal box bear is a fun jumping off point for a study of this interesting mammal. Affiliate links below.

Cereal Box Black Bear

Materials:

• cereal box
• construction paper (black, brown)
• scissors
• glue
• black pen
• large googly eyes

Steps:

Cover the cereal box with black construction paper. The amount you need depends on the size of the cereal box. I used one sheet to cover the front and one side and a second sheet to cover the back and the other side, then cut strips from a third piece for the top and bottom. 

Cut ears from black construction paper, making them about an inch longer than you want them to be. Fold over that extra inch to make a flap so you can glue the ears to the top of the box. 

Cut an oval from brown construction paper and draw a nose and mouth. Glue it to the front of the cereal box. Cut a semicircle of brown construction paper and glue it to the bottom center of the front of the box to make the bear's tummy. Glue the googly eyes in place. 

A New Batch of Kids' Crafts Roundups

I've been busier than ever running Fun Family Crafts. It should come as no surprise that our traffic is way, way up as people have been searching for activities for kids to do during the COVID-19 pandemic. With almost 12,000 kid-friendly craft tutorials for toddlers through teens, it's no exaggeration to say we have something for everyone. 

My focus for the last few weeks has been on crafts that use materials that people likely already have at home. With that in mind, here are the new roundups I've been making. First, Cereal Box Crafts. There are 58 on the site right now. One of mine is in the graphic below. Can you spot it? 

Cereal Box Crafts

Next up, Button Crafts for Kids. We have 340 button crafts ideas, which made it really hard for me to pick which to include in the roundup. As always, I tried to choose the widest variety possible. One of mine is in there.  

Button Crafts for Kids

It took me forever to deal with the Styrofoam Ball Crafts for Kids. I had to delete several dozen of my favorites from someone who recently deleted her blog and thus all her tutorials. (I HATE when that happens.) Then I had to clean up the tags for all the styrofoam projects to pick out the stryfoam ball ones. And then I had to deal with the fact that styrofoam is actually a brand name (the proper generic is polystyrene). Crafters who work for styrofoam competitors tag their project with those brand names, which never get searched. In the end, I found 71 styrofoam ball crafts. One of mine is in the graphic below.

Styrofoam Ball Crafts for Kids

Next was Recycled Can Crafts. We have 84 different projects. Many are variations on classic desk organizers (like R2-D2 below), but there are many other uses as well. As always, I tried to show the greatest possible variety in the graphic. One of them is mine. 

Recycled Can Crafts for Kids

I had the most fun putting together the roundup of Yarn Crafts. Even though there were 434 crafts to choose from, the ones that were bright and colorful jumped right out at me and it wasn't as hard to narrow them down as it usually is with so many options. And I LOVE the way the title block came out. Two of the projects in this roundup are mine. 

Yarn Crafts for Kids

Finally, Garden Crafts. We have so many cute ideas. I think my favorite is using an old garden hose to make a wreath. So cute!

 Garden Crafts for Kids

As always, I made all the graphics using PicMonkey. I've been paying $6/month for their Basic plan for about 2 years and I couldn't be happier with it.