Cereal Boxes!

I have seen a lot of Pintrest ideas with cereal boxes and as an upcoming teacher decided to make some things for my classroom. I had 7 Cheerio boxes...

 I laid them out to decide whether I wanted a really tall paper sorter or a shorter one. Since I had 7 boxes I thought I would be able to have the 7th one on the side (turns out once I got the other six glued together the sideways boxes was just slightly too tall so I just did a 2 x 3).














When I stacked them together, I didn't like how flimsy the center was so I decided to reinforce the middles. I tried another layer of cardboard (didn't like the extra bulk). I eventually settled on this pattern of craft sticks (hot glued).  Then I spray glued them together, taped them together with duct tape and taped the middle parts together with duct tape. I also spray painted the inside with white spray paint to disguise the cardboard look on the inside.

Then when I was deciding what to do with the outside I laid out all these fabric pieces I had. I messed with the fabric forever before I decided it wasn't working right and it was going to take me forever to get it to work...lots of glue and adjusting and blah. So I decided to go with a thick package paper look.






I folded the paper around the thing like it was a present (making all the correct creases), then I peeled up each side, sprayed the glue and pressed. The cool thing about the packaging paper is I can color on it, write something on it, glue stuff on it, etc. I haven't done anything else to it because I'm not sure what grade I will get or anything. But here's the "finished look." It's pretty sturdy and it should last awhile. I'm planning on using it on my desk so there won't be children messing with it. Even if it does rip or collapse or whatever...it only cost me a couple of dollars to make (I had to buy spray glue and duct tape, but I had everything else).








As a side note of advice: I think everyone (especially krafters or people with kids) should have a roll of thick packaging paper. I use it to lay on the floor if the kids and I are going to do something messy, it's great for wrapping and personalizing presents, and it's sturdy to use a couple of times.