How to Make a Love Boat Out of a Milk Carton - {Tutorial}

Well, Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching and did we get out the Valentine's decorations? -- wait,.. do I even have Valentine's decorations? I dunno,... but, they didn't come out to play this year. I think I'm still soaking in the plain-ness that is my home after all the Christmas decorations came down. Ya' know? I did see an awesome Valentine's project in one of the many magazine's that make a monthly (or weekly) trip to our house and I just couldn't resist. It's so simple and I knew my big kiddo would absolutely adore it.  He's a total boy, so anything plane, train, or automobile (or boat) is a winner. So, today Mommy was "the best Mommy, ever!" I kid you not, he actually said that to me when I got done with this thing and showed it to him. He was a little bummed out to hear that he couldn't "play" with it and that it was only for keeping his Valentine's cards in, though.

Now, I can't for the life of me remember what magazine I saw this in, but here's how you start...

Take a milk carton and either, tape the spout closed or cut off the plastic spout or you can do what I did and just push it in.  Then, cut a piece of cardboard (like from a cereal box) at 3 3/4 x 10 inches.

Then, fold the cardboard in half and tape to the milk carton as shown below...




Then, I covered the top and bottom with paper first, and then covered the sides with white paper. With an exact-o knife, cut a square out of the back for your pretty Valentine's Day cards. Then, go to town decorating it however you like and add some smoke stacks at the top by cutting three pieces of black paper at 2 1/2 x 5 inches. Then, roll them up and tape or glue them together. I used my hot glue gun for the entire project, but double sided tape would work just fine, too.  I also used a circle punch and a heart punch to make the cute little windows on the sides

And there it is! A little LOVE BOAT to store all the sweet Valentine's cards coming your way! Happy Valentine's Day everyone! XOXO

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