I saw this craft in the Martha Stewart Magazine last year and knew I needed to make it.
How funny would it be for the kids to open a lump of coal in their stockings this year?
You can put a keychain, a pair of earrings, a tie, a pair of socks or any other small object in these little sparkly lumps of cheer. I followed the directions found here, except for a couple of key points. So I am going to list what I did just in case you want to do it the way I did:
(length of time to make project: about 1 hour,
plus an additional hour for the project to dry)
plus an additional hour for the project to dry)
- First I painted the boxes black
- Then I crumpled up some black cardstock paper and hot glued it to the top of the lid.
- I took a piece of black cardstock bigger than the top and folded in half and then again — so it was in four pieces. Then I opened the last fold and then folded those side in to each other making a point, like so:
- Then I put a line of hot glue around the edges of the box, then immediately pressed the cardstock on to the top of the box, pressing against the edges. The middle of the folds should be roughly centered in the middle of the box, so the middle is slightly elevated.
- Once the glue is cool, I cut against the edges of the lid to trim the paper.
- Then I cut another piece of black cardstock into fourths and soaked it in water for a couple of minutes.
- I put a layer of mod podge over the entire lid and then placed the wet piece of cardstock over the top, crinking the cardstock slightly to mimic the roughness of coal.
- One the paper dried out a little, I trimmed the cardstock to the bottom of the edges of the lid. Then I applied another heavy coat of mod podge over the entire top of the box.
- While the lid was wet, I sprinkled black glitter over the entire top. After I finished glittering the tops, I put a layer of mod podge over the bottoms of the boxes and glittered them too.
- I let it dry, and then I put some tissue in the boxes and filled them with goodies. I can’t wait to see my kids’ faces when they open their lumps of coal!
- Note: the major changes to the MS directions are I used hot glue instead of black tape (don’t have any of that) and I used mod podge instead of fabric stiffener (don’t have any of that either). I also put an extra layer of cardstock over the top to keep it more secure.
I hope you are having a great week!
XOXO
Depending on the size of the box, I bet you could use an egg carton cup to shape it. (Or just use two egg carton cups to begin with.)
Oh gosh! That's just awesome. Leave it to YOU to improve upon Martha! Holy Crud! (I said "crud". I kinda feel awesome about that!)
Here's the deal, Amelia has figured out that if she's naughty, Santa won't bring her gift. Only she says he'll bring her "rocks". And she'll then recite the whole Charlie Brown Halloween scene where all the kids get treats and he says "I got a ROCK!" She's kind of petrified by the prospect of rocks. This might send her over the edge! 🙂
Love this! Take a break. I'm not kidding. Merry Christmas!!
Those coal gift boxes are so fun and clever! I would love to give these to my kids or have them in their stockings! So clever!
thanks for this! i love it! i'm featuring it on my blog smallfineprint.blogspot.com
I think these are so cute! Whatever you do, don't use round boxes like I did. They end up looking like burnt muffins. Much more effective with the hexagonal boxes
Hey Cameron put a lump of charcoal on his list. Ha! I immediately thought of this and went hunting it down! I already had it bookmarked. I hope I can find the time to do it. Still love it!
how fun! they really turned out great!
This is so cute! Yup, I think I know some people who may be getting a little bit of coal this year!
I adore these Jen! I've featured them on Tip Junkie before. You're so clever.
saw you were on tj! woo hoo!