Among friends, I am pretty sure I am referred to (behind my back) as the crazy eco girl. Someone who shall not be named always makes fun of me because when I brought her some burritos after her third baby was born, I begged her to not throw away the tin foil they were wrapped in. So of course, when this month’s theme – turning old onto new –  was decided, I was phyched. (Do people say that anymore?) I LOVE using old stuff to make awesome new stuff. It soothes my Earth Mama soul.

Since my Little Bees are total piglets when it comes to berries, I had a zillion of those little baskets they come in stashed in my kids craft box. The Little Bee has been begging for one of those pirate – y looking boxes that are perfectly positioned right by the fabric department (grrrr) at Hobby Lobby, so I hatched a plan to make our own “treasure boxes” out of all those berry baskets. And since Valentine’s Day is upon us, why not turn them into fun little gifts for the Little Bees’ little friends?

Here’s what you need:

Plastic berry baskets

Red spray paint (if you want)

Contact paper or scrapbook paper

Sparkly stuff – sequins, rhinestones, whatever strikes your fancy

Glue. Lots and lots and lots of glue.

Snacks and plastic baggies to put them in. But promise me you will wash out the baggies and re use them.

I started by giving the outside of berry baskets a coat of red spray paint. This isn’t necessary, but I wanted them to be all Valentiney. When they were dry, I cut a piece of chalkboard contact paper to the size of the top of the basket, and glued it on. I thought that the contact paper would stick but I was wrong. It took a semi ridiculous amount of glue to get it stuck. We used chalkboard paper because I wanted to be able to write names on the finished project and allow the kiddos to wipe them off after Valentines Day to make room to write things like “Pirate Gold” or “Baby sisters, do not touch!!!” Pretty scrapbook paper would work great too.

Enter the Busy Bee to work some girlie magic. Their job was pretty simple – just glue the gems around the border of the paper to make them look bee-yoo-tee-full.

To fill up these little treasure boxes, we made some Valentine’s Day puppy chow, just using the recipe on the Chex box and adding heart sprinkles and a bag of pink and red M and M’s. Or you can just pick the red M and M’s out of the Costco bag of M and M’s you keep as potty training bribery. Not that I know about that…

So there you have it!  A quick and easy Valentine’s Day treat that your kids can make. You can tweak these for any occasion as well, tiny Easter baskets, May Day treats, or even a cute gift card holder.

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!