This stately vase is made from a cereal box with an optional container inside to hold water for flowers. Add handles or not, and decorate your vase any way you like with markers, crayons, or scrap collage. Even customize it for a special-occasion gift! Or leave your vase plain and let the classic shape take center stage.

• Made in minutes with any cereal box

• Looks great decorated or plain, with flowers or without

• It’s unbreakable!

There is some specific taping, marking, and cutting involved but it’s all super easy, and it all makes sense once you have made your first vase. This craft is very similar to the Box Head, and in fact you can use a Box Head as a vase in just the same way.

Steps At a Glance:

Ready? Here’s how:

1

You’ll need:

• an empty cereal box

• scissors

• tape

• pencil

• rubber band

• markers (optional)

2

Open the bottom of the box.

Open the side seam by gently separating the glued edges. Tip: If the seam is hard to find look inside the box. If the glue is stubborn try starting from the other end. It’s totally OK if the box peels as you are separating the seam.

Fold the box back together inside out and tape the side seam back up, with the narrow strip of flap underneath.

Bend the seam you just taped to make it go this new opposite way. If it pops open, no worries - just retape.

3

Put the rubber band around the middle of the box. Turn it around to look at all four sides and adjust the rubber band to make as straight a line as you can.

Mark the four corners with pencil.

Now move the rubber band halfway between your pencil marks and the bottom of the box — again making the rubber band as straight as you can. Mark these corners with pencil. Then put a pencil mark in the center, and one halfway to each side of the center. Erase and re-mark if they look way off, but they don’t have to be perfectly spaced. Do the same front and back. Take off the rubber band.

4

Flatten the box for easier drawing.

Draw a curved line going from a middle corner mark down to a halfway-from-the-center mark and a straight line from there to the bottom corner. Do the same left and right, front and back.

You can erase and redraw so they are roughly alike, but the lines don’t have to be perfectly identical.

You can decorate your vase now while it’s flat or leave that for later.

5

Close the bottom of the box and tape the ends along the edge of the box.

Tape along the bottom flap, wrapping the tape over the corners like you do for a box to be shipped.

6

Snip into the box at a lower corner mark to make an opening for your scissors. Cut to the V where your two pencil lines meet. Then cut in the opposite direction across to the other side, stopping at the other V. Do the same on the other side of the box.

Starting from the V, cut along your pencil lines. Cut all four sets of pencil lines. Your cutting doesn’t have to be perfect! Tip: It’s easiest to start with very small snips.

This makes two pairs of side sections.

Leave the parts you cut around attached. They make handy flaps that will help you tape down the side sections in the next step, and make your vase stronger.

7

Each section has two handy flaps for easy taping (If you find a dangling piece of flap held on by tape you can remove it). Put tape on the printed side of each flap, right against the fold and sticking out about 1/2”.

Take a section, hold it so the flaps are pushed inward a little, and fit the section into the box. Pinch the tape to the box to seal.

Do the same for all four sections.

Push the top flaps inside or cut them off. Your Footed Vase is finished! Decorate or leave plain. Cut the top in points or scallops, or add handles with the how-to below.

Fill your vase

Find a jar or other narrow container that can fit inside the neck of your vase. Fill partway with water and place the jar down inside the vase. Try filling your vase with garden trimmings or wild greenery to create your own unique arrangement.

and try this:

Add Handles

Cut C-shapes out of scrap paperboard.

Fold the ends and tape in place.

Try different proportions

It’s easy to change the proportions of the top and bottom, and it lets you try out even more design options. Simply put the rubber band a little higher up on the box for the first set of marks, then choose your own midpoint for the second set of marks. Draw the connecting lines just as in the main directions.

Thank you for reading! If you have questions, please drop me a line.