Earth Day is coming up April 22nd. I love upcycling, recycyling and using found objects in my creative endeavors. Today I am going to show you a fun project that your kids can get involved in. It is a cereal box mosaic chalkboard. You can do a mini version of this on a picture frame or small mirror too. Plus it keeps some of those cardboard boxes out of the landfills and to good use in your home. The kiddos go crazy for this. It is kind of like “where’s Waldo?” They get to scan the frame and figure out what square belongs to what cereal box.
Supplies:
Foam brush
Scissors
Wax paper
White paint (if your frame isn’t already painted)
1. Collect fun and brightly colored cereal, fruit snacks, granola bar or other cardboard boxes. Using a paper trimmer cut your box into different sized strips. If your child is old enough they can handle this (just watch for little fingers).
2. Next using scissors or the paper trimmer, cut them into small rectangles or squares. You could also do triangles if you wanted, but that makes laying out a mosaic pattern slightly more difficult for kids.
3. Paint your frame the color your want. I chose white. Put a thick coat of Mod Podge onto your frame.
4. Then press the cardboard into place. Trim the edges as needed for a perfect fit. Straighten out any crooked pieces.
5. Once all your pieces are in place use wax paper and a brayer to roll over the frame burnishing down all your cardboard pieces. Re-glue any pieces that are coming up. Let dry.
6. Once completely dry, go over the top of the cardboard with some more Mod Podge to seal it. We put 3 coats on ours for a nice shine.
7. If you painted the board with chalkboard paint make sure to season it with chalk first.
The kids love it. It is fun to play hide and seek by giving each other clues to try and find a certain piece on the board.
It brings great color to a space and can be used as a reminder board, menu planner, grocery list, scoreboard or just a place for the kiddos to draw.
For more cereal box crafts you can do with your kids click on the pictures below to be taken directly to the tutorial…
Cereal Box Postcards
Cereal Box Kid Art Display
Cereal Box Notepads
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So creative. I love this.
Very cute. I absolutely love it!
Cute! I need to get one of those brayer things. I always have finger prints in my modge podge creations, LOL
That is so cute! I love the colors!!
What a great project. My seven year old would love it.
You are channeling Seinfeld with all that cereal!
Amazing how that turned out.
Look at YOU! Must post.
I love it!
great project mommy! isaac learned a lot with this and will continue to as well… fine motor skills (cutting), measurement and geometry (making the pieces fit together), recognizing colors and letters (did i see any words from the cereal boxes?) and of course even more with memorizing a new bible verse each week… can you tell i'm a school teacher of young children entirely focussed on back to school activities???? i'm filing this idea away for my little class! thanks!
LOVE IT!!!!!! It's so colorful and totally kid-friendly! And how fun that Isaac got to help make his verse board!
I had no idea you could paint a mirror like that. Did you paint the mirror part, or the back of it?
What a cute idea! Why isn't my brain as creative as yours? Jackie
WOW, I really,really love this idea!!!
I love this! What a great idea!! This would make such a cute cork board frame to put all my daughters school crafts on!! Fantastic Thanks for the idea!
I have been saving mine to make the mags holder. But, I like your idea so much better!
I call cereal – batchelor steak for my hubby.
That's a good idea. I've got a stack of cereal boxes too. I use them as backer for things when I make my Montessori stuff and let the kids paint on the plain side.
So cute! I am about to go play with my Mod Podge stuff now for the first time. I am glad I could see how it works first. 🙂
So adorable! We don't buy cereal, but I'm sure the idea would work just as well with other fun boxes. TFS!
My kids would love this.
I love your blog! I just started a new design blog myself, featuring all my favorite before & afters. I'd love to feature you sometime! C'mon over if you get a chance!
http://www.betterafter.blogspot.com
So adorable! Funny thing is I was just researching ways to make a chalk board. I have a big black frame that I want to buy a piece of wood to fit it and make it a chalk board to do exactly the same with, verses! Caeden will be memorizing verses every week for school so I want to hang one by the kitchen table. Of course my frame will just be boring and black but I'm pretty proud of myself for attempting to make a chalkboard! 🙂
Nic
So colorful and recycling at it's finest 🙂
SO FUN!!
I've had a quirky idea of using cereal boxes for childrens gifts (still with wrapping around them) not sure I'd follow through with it unless I was good friends with the birthday kids' parents, but it is a great size for such a thing!
I love a good "craps" project and this is definitely one of them! Great job.
Wow, how fun!
super cute – my kids would love this. I don't think we eat enough cereal, though.
Well now, that's just ridiculous. Ridiculously CUTE. Where do you come up with this stuff? I'm good for parties, but just regular stuff? You are the queen.
Very cute and creative! I can relate to getting craft ideas late at night. Sometimes I get "creative insomnia" where I have so many project ideas that I can't sleep!
That's great! It's really creative and cute.
I had to laugh when I saw your son call it "craps" time. I have a post you might like about the same word!
http://dawnsgoodlife.blogspot.com/2009/08/craft.html
check it out if you have a sec!
i love how colorful it turned out! and what a fun projects for kids 🙂
So creative and absolutely adorable. I love it. What a great idea to use for writing out verses. Thanks for this great idea!
How fun!!
Looks adorable! Great job!
Very cute idea. I do the same thing-in bed all kinds of ideas pop in my head. This is my first time to your blog, I hope you come over and become a follower and subscribe and I will do the same. I also started a new KNOCK OFF KNOCK OUT party and I bet you have some things to put in the party-it's every Monday.
Cheri
Its So Very Cheri
This is great! We go through enough cereal around here to make a BIG one.
That is ADORABLE!!! Way to look at garbage to make the cutest frame ever 🙂
What a great project! I bet you it would look cool with tootsie roll wrappers (the fruit flavored ones–yum).
I have a poll up on my blog about my BIGGEST decor dilemma. Come on over and vote, I need all the help I can get!
http://imnomartha.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-poll-ever-to-paint-or-not-to.html
Great idea, no doubt. Thanks for sharing!
my kids will have a blast with this project. so creative and unrestricting, and green!
Love it! So creative!
I love this idea! I'm going to save up my cereal boxes so that I can make one with my daughter!
This is so fun and bright, what a great idea!
Wow, that's so pretty! And I love the chalkboard, how fun! Thanks so much for the fun idea, I'll be linking.
I just posted a similar but no where near as cool chalkboard idea. I will be adding this link to my post, it's awesome! Wow!
So clever! Great idea! Thanks for sharing with the rest of us!
http://housequeen.blogspot.com