We love milk. Used in baking, in cooking or just in sipping, we all go through lots of milk, and so we go through the milk cartons! Instead of tossing them in the trash, save a few for fun crafts you can help the kids with any time of year. For small crafts that take up less space, turn to school milk cartons. Whether sneaking some empty cartons home or buying paperboard cartons from the craft store, below are 5 fun DIY crafts that use school milk cartons.
A Grazing Cow Planter
Cut the gabled top off a school milk carton and hand off to the kids to paint a hungry cow. Once they paint three of the sides as the body, they can glue googly eyes, add two circles inside a sidewise oval to create a nose, and finish it off with whatever snack their new cow is munching. Once dry, add potting soil and add seeds or a succulent.
A Quick-Stop Bird Feeder
Cut out a side of the carton for the neighborhood birds to access. You can cut out all four sides if you want to, but make sure you leave the edges as a sturdy frame. Decorate your carton with bright colors and then use a hole-puncher in the gable to feed a wire through. All that’s left to do is to find the perfect place to hang your feeder (and add some seeds, of course)! It will be hilarious when the local squirrels try to crawl in for a treat.
A Milk-Powered Neighborhood
Let the imagination run wild by creating an entire neighborhood made of milk cartons. Small school milk cartons can be painted as one-story homes or cars. Add in larger cartons for school buses and hotels, even using cut-up gallon jugs for a ship. This milk-powered town can have anything!
Moo-gical Paper Lanterns
Do you want to add the finishing touch to a costume or discover a fun way to create a nightlight? A paper lantern is a fun craft that uses a school milk carton so it’s the right size for small hands. Cut away the sides of a school milk carton, leaving the frame (edges, bottom and gabled-top) intact. Decorate the frame before gluing tissue paper to replace the sides. Use a hole-puncher to feed a ribbon through the top of the carton. Add a battery-powered tea candle and the kids are ready to lead you.
Milk Carton Candles
Speaking of candles, you can use milk cartons to shape your homemade candles. Cut the top of a milk carton off. Tape a wick to the center of a pencil, placing the pencil across the mouth of your new candle mold milk carton. Melt the last pieces of old crayons and add scented oils of your favorite smells. Pour it into the modified milk carton. Once cooled, detach the wick from the pencil and cut the milk carton away from candles ready to burn. For a truly dairy-focused craft, you can also include milk in the candles.
For more fun school milk carton DIY craft ideas, head over to our Pinterest page.