DIY Treasure Box

I needed a change up today with my posts.  While I do love talking budgeting - I really wanted to blog about something else.  Take a little break with my multi-Episode blogging and do something fun! I will finish off my budgeting episodes on Friday and next Tuesday.  But for now, some DIY eye candy!!!

A couple weeks ago, Peanutty had an assignment for school that involved recycling something you already have into something useful.  Well, together we came up with the idea of a treasure box.  Here's what we used to complete this assignment:

If you're like us, you may get a box or 10 everyday as you use items up in your house.  Well, I'm the crazy lady that keeps them just in case something like this arises.  So, with a combination of an old Nike shoe box, a variety of sizes of cardboard boxes, scissors, a Sharpie, tape, paper cutter, and some fun scrapbook paper - we came up with this:

 We arranged the smaller boxes into the larger Nike box to create compartments for the treasure box.  We lucked out and these fit perfect!

 We took our Sharpie and marked the boxes so they were the same height as the larger box, so that when finished, the box lid would close.

 And you get something that looks like this when you cut all the boxes down to size.

 A different view...as if you didn't gather that already.

 You then cut your paper down to match the length of the box.  So you end up with a strip of paper.  You just push it down into the box, crease where the corners are and then tape it.

 You can kind of see how we did it.  I wasn't thinking about taking pictures while doing this!!!  You'd think I would learn.

In the end, you will add just a little fun to the blah cardboard boxes and situate them again in to the larger box.  You close the lid and you've got a DIY treasure box.  I'd love to share what Peanutty put in his treasure box, but it's top secret (a bunny slingshot, a Batman motorcycle, Skylanders from Mickey D's [McDonalds]...shhhh, I didn't just share that).  Total cost of this project was about $5.00 for the paper...but if you want to get technical:  $65 for the Nike shoes, $25 for the paper cutter, $15 for the food that was IN the boxes as one point, $2 for scissors (IKEA), $2 for the Sharpie, and $1 for the Scotch tape.  That's a grand total of:  $115.00.  When I put it this way - Peanutty better have gotten an A+++ on this project.

While it's nothing fancy, it's his place to put his treasures.  IF I would have been thinking, I should have purchased two pages of each paper so I could cover the box BOTH ways to cover up all the cardboard, but I wasn't thinking.  Peanutty is not complaining.  I used this same kind of organization in another place in my home...can you guess where?

FYI:  I'm not proofreading this one - been one heck of a long day!!!  I could use an iced chai.

Until Friday dear Sweatpants readers!!!