Robert’s Craft Summer Boredom-Buster Box

Supplies:

Note: All supplies are from Karen Foster unless specified

Peek A Box

Game Pieces 12 x 12 paper

Family Game Night 12 x 12 paper

Movie Night Stripe 12 x 12 paper

Family Night Collage 12 x 12 paper

Swirl Burst Brads sunset

Family Fun Night cardstock stickers

Family Fun stacked sentiment

Crazy Coil Brads in apricot & saffron

1″, 5/8″, 1 ¼” circle punches

1 ¼” scalloped punch

Instructions:

For all 24 of the boxes you will do the exact same thing just change the paper on the front of the box.

On the package of the box there is a template for the front of the boxes. You can either cut the template out to use or you can cut out the paper without the template. The dimensions for the box is 2″x 2″.

Cut a piece of paper to fit the size of the box. Either trace the template or trace the box where the hole is at the top of the box. I found that you can also use a 5/8″ punch to punch the half circle from the middle top of the box.

Once the paper is cut to size, use double stick tape to attach the piece of paper to the box.

Once all the boxes have been covered, cut out 24 circles from the patterned paper. I find the 1″ circle punch is the perfect size for this.

Glue the circle punches onto each of the boxes. Trim the edges if necessary. Apply the number stickers that came with the package.

Embellish the boxes using the stickers, stacked sentiments and whatever else you want.

For the cover, cut 2 strips of paper 1×12″. Also cut out 2 strips of paper 1″ x 8 ½”.

Glue the two longer side strips of paper first, then glue the top and the bottom strips on the cover.

In the corners, use the 1 ¼” circle and the 1 ¼” scalloped circle punch. Embellish the center with the coil brads.

Embellish the cover with stickers.

Fill with your ideas for activities for the summer.

The following ideas of summer activities were taken from the following web address:

Visit a food factory or fast food restaurant Get in touch with a local food factory or fast food restaurant and ask if they have family tours. McDonalds regularly takes visitors on a store tour inside their kitchen and working areas to show visitors how they work. Very educational and eye opener for kids to see how their burgers are cooked.

Visit your local fire station Fire Stations often have visitor programs to teach kids and visitors how fire fighters live and work, and during those visits, sometimes they let you try sliding down the fire-fighters pole and even test a hose!

Actually you don’t need a park. A nice big old’ shady tree (even in your backyard) will make a really nice place for a picnic. Have a hearty meal, lie down and watch the clouds go by as you make out imaginary animals with your kids.

Turn your garage into a cinema Rent a projector and turn an old bed sheet or white
linen into a screen. Invite the neighbors. Throw some carpets or rugs on the floor so everyone can just laze around if they want. Be sure to pass around plenty of popcorn!

See a “one dollar” movie at the theater. Lots of cinemas have one-dollar days where they screen movies and the tickets cost $1. Take the whole family for one of these movies.

Go to a drive-in movie. A must for those lazy long summer nights!

Set up lemonade or snow-cone stand Help your kids learn to earn a little extra cash by selling lemonade or snow cones. Teach them the basics of running a small business. A great opportunity for your kids to experience life as a little entrepreneur. You never know
when you might light the business flame in one of them and they go on to make a cool million as a businessman or businesswoman

Make homemade play doh. Have a squishy fun time making art out of your homemade play doh.

Make your own t-shirts Grab that old t-shirt and get some fabric crayons and you’re set for at least an hour’s worth of fun. Anything and everything goes. Just let your creativity run wild!

Turn your driveway into an art canvas. Get your kids to draw a big “I Love You Daddy” or “I Love You Mommy” so that’s the first thing they see when they drive home!

Make Origami art This should provide hours of fun, but you will need an adult to explain some of the folding techniques. If you make enough colorful origami pieces, you can string them together and make a hanging mobile or paste them on your bedroom wall.

Make Pop-up Cards Make a pop-up card for Grandpa and Grandma and post it to them. Make one and post it to yourself.

Make sock puppets Simple enough. All you need is an old pair of socks (preferably single color), glue and stuff to stick on the sock for eyes, nose and mouth. You can get plastic googly eyes from your local handicraft stores.

Make your own pet rock family Go hunting for smooth hand sized rocks, take them home, give them a good clean scrub, dry them and then paint them any way you like. A quick spray of clear lacquer/paint keeps the paint in. Mom or Dad needs to do this because the spray can get into the eyes.

Make Paper Airplanes Make your own paper airplanes and then have a contest to see who can make their airplane to fly the furthest.

Finger painting Get the kids to wear their old t-shirts and shorts and let loose creating masterpieces with watercolors or poster paint and fingers!

Make your own instrument Once you’ve got your instruments done, form a band and videotape your performance.

Make costumes with newspaper. Low-cost and lots of fun. You’ll need lots of newspaper and lots of sticky tape. Avoid using staples and items that could potentially
poke the skin like paper clips (unless your kids are big enough to be careful)

Make a daisy chain or flower garland. Use the wildflowers you collected in your wildflower hunt and make this fun wearable! Make a couple more for Mom and Dad and garland them when they come home from work.

Make cut out moustaches, beards and eyebrows. Stick double-sided tape on the back and try out each moustache or beard. Take photos of yourself.

Shoot your own short movie Make up an adventure story and shoot your own short film. If you have an old camcorder or if your kids are responsible enough to handle one, get them to plan the script for their movie, create the costumes and then shoot the movie. These kinds of video footage are precious keepsakes and if you submit them to YouTube or America’s Funniest Videos, you might just make a bundle!

Summer Video Log If you have one, give your kids a camcorder (they should be old enough to know how to use and care for one) and get them to videotape their summer.
Make a home video and transfer it to CD for keepsake at the end of summer.

Veggie Stamping Get different types of veggie from your fridge or look for interesting objects that can be dipped in paint and stamped onto paper. Make interesting blends of color for a striking effect. You can also stamp onto t-shirts using fabric paints.

Make Balloon Sculptures All you need is a packets of sausage balloons – those long thin balloons that blow up to 3 feet long and about 1 1/4 inch in diameter – and start twisting. You can make simple animals like dogs, birds and flowers using one, two or more balloons. I love the squeaky sounds the balloons make when you twist them. The animals we make hardly look like animals, but it’s more about the fun.

Word Hunt Go round the house and list down all the things that start with a specific letter, for example, Toaster, torchlight, tools, tape etc. Score one point for each word.

Torch Light Party Have a party in the dark. Use only torchlights. Invite your neighbors. Make colored filters out of plastic or glass paper and add color to the party!

Face painting Go wild painting wacky designs on your face! You can also paint hands and legs! But make sure you take precautions – parental supervision required especially if you have smaller kids who could get paint splatters in their eyes.

Paint Toenails If you can, get Dad to lie down on a sofa and apply nail polish on his fingers and toes. If Dad chickens out, paint your own toenails. Don’t believe any Dad would do this?

Makeup party Ask Mom if she’s got old makeup that she doesn’t want anymore. Find a victim (err… volunteer also known as Dad) and apply make up on him!

Indoor treasure hunt All you need is a couple of pieces of paper to scribble your clues and a nice treat for the successful treasure hunter. Start at one point somewhere in your house, think of the next point you want to hide a clue, then create a mysterious riddle or
question about it. About ten riddles and clues should do. Celebrate the winner with fizzy drinks all round while they enjoy their treat.

Music hour Have an hour where you must talk in melody. No plain talking allowed – you have to sing everything that you want to say for an hour. You can even have musical themes – rock, country…

Pillow fight Clear the room and floor of any toys or sharp objects and let loose. Make it a family pillow fight. Use light, fluffy pillows – not the hard-stuffed kinds.

Rainy day jigsaws Get that 1000 piece jigsaw out and do it. It’s not about the jigsaw but about doing something together and bonding.

Disco Night Get out those old 80’s disco albums – oh come on… you know you still keep them. String some Christmas lights and if you have one, a boogie ball. Then dance the night away to your favorite disco songs. End the night watching “Saturday Night Fever”

Play charades Watch each other go wacky trying to act out phrases or things. If you have small children playing, then simple to-do actions are needed.

Turn your living room into a movie theatre Give you kids lots of newspaper, old bed sheets and sticky tape and let them turn your hall into a dark cinema in the daytime. Dad needs to be on-hand to help out while Mom makes the popcorn. Then watch a movie in your self-built movie cinema.

Pajama Day Declare one day pajama day. Go about your daily chores in your pajamas. Dare your Dad to go to the supermarket in his pajamas.

Make a family scrapbook Get those old photos out, organize them and make your own scrapbook. What’s important here is sharing the memories with your kids so they know how very special each and every day with them is to you.

Feed the monster This is a twist to the beanbag toss that we used to play as kids. Get a large cardboard box – about 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall – and on one side, paint a picture of a cuddly monster with big googly eyes and mouth. Then cut out the eyes and mouth. Make a simple beanbag, use tennis balls or small packets of chips to see who can toss them through the eyes and mouth. You can assign points to they eyes and mouth and
keep score, but when we play this we always forget to keep score. It’s all about the fun!

Make and fly your own kites. Nothing more satisfying than making your own kite and
being able to fly it

Kiddie Barbeque If you have one, use a mini barbeque pit. If not, you can make one out of empty tins. Just place a couple of charcoal briquettes in the kiddie barbeque pits. All the food is pre-cooked. The idea is to let the kids have fun making believe they’re really barbequing. The real fun is being together as a family.

Camp out under the stars in the backyard If you have a tent, great, if not then use old bed sheets and build a makeshift shelter. Not for smaller children who need to go to the bathroom every hour.

Build a tire swing in your backyard. Get an old tire from any auto shop or if you have one in your garage, make use of it. You’ll need tough rope that you can get from the hardware store. Make sure the branch is sturdy. You’ll need to get Dad in on this.

Scary Stories Night If you have a backyard, start a campfire, toast some marshmallows and tell scary stories. Alternatively, clear some space in your garage and switch off the lights.

Picnic in the park Actually you don’t need a park. A nice big old’ shady tree (even in your backyard) will make a really nice place for a picnic. Have a hearty meal, lie down and watch the clouds go by as you make out imaginary animals with your kids.

Make your own hopscotch pattern. Hopscotch is really fun if you make your own patterns and rules. Look at this lens to see some sample hopscotch patterns that are really fun.

Torchlight Soccer If you’ve never played this before, you are in for either a treat or one heck of an irritating time. It all depends on whom you play with. This is NOT encouraged, but when we played this during summer camp, we used a black ball. Imagine it – no lights except for your torches and a black ball. We spent half the time trying to find the ball! And imagine the poor goalkeeper!!!!

Play tic-tac-toe or hangman on your driveway using chalk. There are lots of “boring” games that suddenly become exciting when you play it on the driveway! After they’re done, get the kids to hose the driveway with water to wash away the chalk marks. Sneaky way to get them to wash your driveway too yes?

Make home made ice cream. I’ve tried this myself and the best thing about it is that no matter how yucky the ice-cream turns out, it’s still the best in the world because YOU MADE IT YOURSELF.

Make your own pizza Get pizza base, let the kids decorate their own pizza – anything edible and safe goes.

Make snow cones Hot summer days, snow cones. What would be a better combination than that?

Make fruit juice cubes Juice fresh fruit or blend them and pour into ice-cube trays. Add bits of fruits in them if you want to. Nice to suck on, on those hot summer days.

Outdoor shower Sprinkle, Squirt and Shower! Make an outdoor sprinkler with an empty tin or container by using a nail to make holes in the bottom. Hang the tin on a laundry line or tall pole and run water through it. Attach a sprinkler to the garden hose. If you have a kiddie pool, set it up under the shower. Cool wet fun on a hot summer’s day!

Water war Designate a big rectangle as your war zone. Divide yourselves into two teams(mom & son, dad and daughter work well). Place a bucket of water on diagonally
opposite corners. Each player armed with a plastic cup. The object is to fill your cups with water and splash the other team. You can only fill up at your team bucket. The
object is to get wet and have fun.

Play Car Wash Toys, sprays, sprinklers and large sponges encouraged. Sneaky way to get a free car wash!

Play water balloon games There are lots of games you can play with balloon filled with wet, sloshy water, and they’re ALL fun. Your only problem is whether you’ll run out of balloons before the fun ends.

Magnet mania Give the kids a bunch of magnets, metal objects (paper clips are great) and string. Teach them about magnetism

Grow a miniature garden Find an empty wooden box, glass bottle or plastic container; fill it with soil from the garden (ask Mom first) and plant flower or vegetable seeds. Watch them grow.

Build a recycled aquarium Find an old aquarium, clear plastic container or large bottle and look for materials to make an aquarium. The idea is to use 100% recycled materials – that means absolutely NO buying anything (except maybe the fish).

Make a rainbow There are many fun ways to make a rainbow. The best looking rainbows can be made if you have a glass prism. They can be bought from science
supplies stores, hobby stores or hardware stores. Alternatively, you can use everyday household items to make your rainbow. Good way to add a bit of learning into a fun experiment

Make your own bubbles Bubbles are super fun. You can get them really cheap anywhere, but they’re more fun if you make your own and blow them on a windy day! If
you have a bubble-blowing machine, make a million bubbles and see who can burst the most! You can try out different bubble recipes.

Magnifying hunt Give the kids a magnifying glass each and let them loose around the yard. They’ll learn a thing or two for sure.

Go bird watching. Record or take photos of the birds you see and find out their names on the Internet.

Recycle Day Go on a walkabout with your kids about the neighborhood and collect soda cans, old newspaper and other recyclable materials that can be sold to recycling centers.

Go on an animal hunt. If you live near a green patch or near the woods, photograph or count how many types of animals you can spot.

Make a time capsule Time capsules are a snapshot of stuff. Make a time capsule containing personal items and stuff like newspaper clippings and photos. ==> How to
make a time capsule

Here are some favorite Craft activities you can get at Robert’s Crafts:

1. Kids Camp. At the Roberts Craft’s stores this summer the theme for kids camp is Kids Clubhouse Around the World. Each few weeks, kids will have the opportunity to make a different craft from somewhere around the world. The projects are really cute and fun to make not to mention very inexpensive. Give your local Roberts Crafts a call to sign your kids up.

2. Markers & Model Magic. Markers and crayons are a favorite staple item in households. There are many different sizes and colors of markers, crayons, pencils and Robert’s crafts has a large assortment of coloring books. The model Magic comes in a small pack or a large pack. It’s fun air-dry clay that is super easy to use and doesn’t crumble. When you are done with it, either wrap it up and store for another day, or let it dry and make exciting sculptures. Model Magic when dry is super light so it’s great for pins, pencil toppers, finger puppets and just about anything else you can imagine.

3. Melissa & Doug Toys. Melissa and Doug have some awesome toy sets. When choosing a toy from Melissa & Doug, we picked ones that you could do again and again, such as the tracing set or the swirl ‘n spin art. The best thing about these two items we chose, they are easy enough that children can do it without the help of mom or dad.

4. Klutz books. Robert’s Crafts has a huge assortment of Klutz books. The great thing about Klutz books is they are made with you to be able to do multiple projects with the items that are included with the book. For example, the Rubber Band powered flying machine book comes with enough products to make 3 flyers and lots of helps on designing the perfect airplane.

5. Fabric kits. Weather it is Fabric Tie-Die kits or fabric paints, there is enough stuff to create quite a lot of projects that are colorful and define your personality. The tie-dye kit has enough stuff to dye up to 20 shirts. Don’t let your imagination stop there with shirts, go for socks, pillowcases, fabric for hair bows. Let your creativity run wild.

6. Perler Beads. This is such a classic craft. The concept is simple. Use little plastic colored beads to create pictures. Once the pictures are complete, cover with the parchment paper and iron the picture. Thus it will melt the beads together. You can either make them in sets, you can have a whole Perler Bead party where you can invite your friends over and make projects, or you can get the bucket of beads and just create your own. This project has been a favorite of my kids time after time for many years. They love to create projects and put magnets on the back of them or make drink coasters.

7. Rex Lace. Also known as boondoggle. This is such a great easy, inexpensive craft to get your kids hooked on. You can make key chains, lanyards, decorate frames etc. Rex Lace is sold either in small amounts or in bolts. The bolts of Rex Lace are very inexpensive so buy a bunch and mix the colors. Such a fun project to do. Keeps the kids busy for a lot of time.