Cardboard Box Aquarium

It’s back to school season so I’ve been hitting up Costco to stock up on our favorite snacks and foods that help make mornings and school lunches easier. That also means I have a lot of big boxes that I need to recycle, so I decided to snag my Box Tops off and turn the box into a fun craft for the kids. I turned our Annies Homegrown box into a little aquarium that you can move the fish around like puppets. 

You can participate in the Golden Box Tops Challenge right now by purchasing specially marked General Mills products from Costco. These packages have an additional 8 Box Tops on them and there will be a code on the packaging to be entered on www.costcoboxtops.com to win one of 3,000 BoxTops prize packs. For an added chance to win, use the code below to see if you win the Golden Box Tops!

When you have some good boxes to work with you can make this fun craft with your kids. It doesn’t have to be an aquarium either. You can make any kind of little puppet theater. We love Annies Homegrown because they offer Organic options. It’s our favorite Mac & Cheese also. 

Here is what I used for this project:

Cardboard Box from Costco

Marine toys – fish, coral, etc.

Fishing string

Paint – Black, blue, sand (gold)

Scrapbook paper

Scrapbook stickers – Fish, bubbles, seaweed

Buttons

I found everything I needed at my local craft store, including the little marine toys. The scrapbook paper was a great find because it had waves in it. The Annies Homegrown Organic Fruit Snacks box was the perfect fit for this project. I started by using an Exacto knife to cut the front of the box off. Don’t forget to cut your Box Tops off too! 

Then paint the outside of the box black. I used black because I wanted to make sure to cover the logo’s on the box without using a bunch of coats of paint. I also painted the inside of the box with blue and the bottom panel with gold to look like sand. I didn’t paint the backdrop because I found a piece of wave paper that I wanted to use. After putting the wave paper in, I then painted some seaweed with green. I also put some stickers on the backdrop to give it some depth. I used bubbles, seaweed, and some cute fish with silly googly eyes. I poked a hole through some of the little fish so that I could thread fishing string through it. I put a button on the other end so that I could hang them from the top of the box so that they look like they are floating. 

Then you need to cut some slots into the top of the box so you can push the buttons through them. Make sure you leave some space and that they won’t collapse on your box. Then you put the buttons through the slots and move them around to the position you want them to be in. The marine toy set I found had a little treasure chest, sea star, and some coral that I was able to put in the bottom. I didn’t glue them down because I wanted to be able to change the scenes around.

I think it came out really cute and the kids and move the fish around whenever they like. I also don’t have to worry about cleaning the fish tank or the costly fish (that might die). 

Have fun!