Homemade Valentine Box Ideas for School to Collect All Those Valentines

Making your own Valentine box to collect your Valentines at school is a fun and easy Valentine craft for kids of all ages! Today we have two different homemade Valentine box ideas that upcycle household items and use basic craft supplies. Follow the simple step by step instructions to make your own customized Valentine box or use these as inspiration to create your own Valentine mailbox design!

Kids Valentine Box Ideas

Remember the fun of receiving all those Valentines at school?  You may have been in preschool or Kindergarten or 1st Grade…or higher.  Sometimes the class would make a box to collect the Valentines together. Sometimes we brought homemade Valentine mailboxes from home. This tutorial is so easy, all kiddos can make a box to receive all of their Valentine’s day gift.

Related: Valentine party ideas

Here are two simple DIY Valentine’s Day box ideas that you can make with things like a milk carton and empty cereal boxes you might already have at home. I love the we can upcycle stuff to make a DIY Valentine’s box.

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How to Make a School Bus Valentine Box

Our first Valentine mail box design that you can easily craft from things you already have is a School Bus!  A school bus made out of a milk carton. So head to your recycling bin and grab an empty milk carton along with a few other supplies…

Related: Kids Valentines you can make

Supplies Needed for Valentine School Bus Mail Box

• Milk carton
• Four milk carton caps
• Yellow wrapping paper (or any yellow paper or yellow construction paper)
• Glue stick & glue gun with sticks
• Black, Red & grey marker
• Black paint & paintbrush
• Stickers to decorate
• Craft knife & scissors
• A piece of red cardstock (optional)
• Red pipe cleaner(optional)
• White marker/pen (optional)
• An awl (optional)

Steps for Making Milk Carton Valentine Mailbox

Step 1

For this, the first step is to wrap the milk carton with yellow wrapping paper.

Step 2

Use a glue stick to hold the wrapping paper in place.

Step 3

For the next edges on the top of the carton, use yellow tape to hide or use a strip of wrapping paper and a glue stick to hide the edges. 

Step 4

Use a black marker to add details like windows, doors, windshield and also if you want to add any writings for the school bus.

Step 5

Use a red and grey marker to add lights at the front and back. 

Step 6

Paint the milk carton caps with black paint.

Step 7

Allow the newly painted caps to dry and add them as wheels to the milk carton using hot glue. 

Step 8

To add a fun element, cut a piece of red card stock in an octagon shape and use a white marker to write “Stop” and add a border.

Step 9

I wrote “Stop & drop” as it is rhyming – kind of stop & drop your valentine’s card ;).

Step 10

Make the “L” shape out of pipe cleaner, use tape to glue the stop sign on the base of the “L” shape.

Step 11

Make a hole in the milk carton between the first and the second window and insert the pipe cleaner. That’s it, now you can bend it so the sign looks like a stop sign on a school bus.

Step 12

Decorate the school bus as desire with heart stickers to add more valentine’s day vibe.

Step 13

Mark a slot at the top and cut it using a craft knife to complete the school bus Valentine’s day box.

Finished Valentine School Bus Mail Box Ready for Valentines!

I absolutely love how this turned out and think it would be super cute to try some different truck/bus alterations for other mail box ideas.

Related: More Valentines crafts for kids

How to Make a Valentine Box Out of a Cereal Box

This next Valentine box idea looks more like a Valentine suitcase and instead of heading to your recycling bin for a milk carton, you will need to grab a cereal box!

Supplies Needed to Make Valentine Suitcase Box for Valentines

• Cereal box
• Red wrapping paper – you could choose a different color or use craft or construction paper
• Ribbon
• Stickers to decorate
• Craft knife
• Tape
• Glue stick

Steps for Making Suitcase Valentine box for School Valentines

Step 1

Tape the open side of the cereal box and wrap it with the wrapping paper as you would wrap a present.

Step 2

Make sure the area you use tape is at the bottom. 

Step 3

Mark and cut a slot at the top for the kids to drop their valentine’s day cards.  Make it wide enough that something with candy attached could go through!

Step 4

Use ribbon to add handle to make it look like a suitcase.

Step 5 

Use glue stick and tape to make it secure and stay in place. 

Step 6

Decorate the valentine’s day suitcase mailbox with stickers to complete the box. 

Finished Valentine’s Day Suitcase Mailbox Ready for School Valentines

How cute did that turn out?  I love the idea of making it look like a travel suitcase with stickers from around the world like stamps, etc.

And don’t forget your child will also need Valentines to give to classmates!  Don’t worry, we have you covered with these quick and easy Valentines you can make and print at home…

Best Valentines Box Ideas Variations

If you don’t have a milk carton or empty cereal box, you can also use shoe boxes, tissue boxes, a Kleenex box, or small cardboard boxes. These will all work for Valentine’s day box ideas.

• Don’t have construction paper? Use tissue paper! 
• You could also make your bus super silly by adding googly eyes as well. Make it your own. This is a fun way to celebrate Valentine’s day, there is no wrong way to do it.
• Either way, these Valentines boxes are great for last minute Valentine’s parties.

Why We Love These Valentine Card Box Crafts

You don’t have to buy a ton of things at the craft store to make these fun Valentine’s day boxes. And the best part is you could decorate these Valentine’s boxes anyway you want using stickers like:

• Hot Air Balloons
• Unicorns
• Monsters
• Dinosaurs
• LEGOs
• Pandas
• Puppies
• Owl

Easy Homemade Valentines – Make & Give From Kids Activities Blog

• We have over 80 school Valentine ideas that don’t take much time, energy, money or craft skills!
• See these cute valentines coloring pages!
• Check out these really easy DIY Valentines cards that work for kids from toddler to preschool age.
• We know that girls will love these too, but in a house full of boys I need Valentines for boys.
• These sweet & cute DIY Valentines are sure to please.
• Print off these Baby Shark Valentine cards!
• We have a big collection of the cutest bracelet Valentines!
• For more printable fun, check out our huge collection of Valentines Coloring Pages for both kids & adults.
• Or these cute non-mushy Valentines Day coloring pages
• And all of Kids Activities Blog Valentines Day Ideas can be seen in one place!
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• Try to crack this super secret Valentine code!
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• See this list of Kids Valentine ideas! Including some kids valentine cards!
• Check out these Valentines coloring pages!
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• Look at these galaxy crayon valentines!
• Check out this giant valentines mural big coloring page!
• We have free heart coloring pages for kids!
• Be unique this Valentines day with our Valentine doodles!
• Check out these St. Valentines Coloring Pages!
• Try making this origami heart card!
• Make these adorable heart cards!
• We have so many great kids Valentines cards you can download and print.
• Make cute homemade owl valentine cards!

How simple are these Valentine mailbox ideas to make at home?