Cereal Box Snack Trays

Hi there! Our family went to see Inside Out at the drive-in movie theater last weekend and it was so fun! Ok, there were a few hassles: it rained, so we all had to pile into our Subaru (cozy!) and we spilled snacks (more than once). But other than that, we had a great time. The next day, I made these snack trays out of cereal boxes to help with spillage the next time. Here are the instructions for how to make cardboard snack trays for the kiddos. I’m betting these things will be a lifesaver. It’s really hard to keep track of everyone’s drinks and avoid spills during a foray to the drive-in, so these should definitely help.

Cereal Box Snack Trays
Nap Rating = 1 nap

Tools and Materials

Empty cereal box
Duct tape
Scissors
Ruler
Red Sharpie
Utility knife
Paper lunch bag
Chalkboard labels (optional)

Steps

Cover the cereal box with strips of duct tape. I wanted ours to resemble red and white striped popcorn containers, so I used white duct tape, but you could pick out any fun pattern you want. I had to use two layers, though, because the writing on the cereal box showed through.
Use a ruler and a red Sharpie to draw fairly even stripes on the top and sides of the box. Color in every other stripe. If you buy patterned duct tape, you can skip this step.
Using a utility knife, cut an X and push the triangles in a bit. This will hold a cup or bottle of water.
Use the bottom of the paper lunch bag to trace a rectangle onto the cereal box. Cut the long sides of the rectangle with the box cutter, leaving the short sides uncut. Make a vertical cut connecting the two horizontal cuts down the center of the rectangle. Push in the flaps a little. This will hold a lunch bag full of popcorn, peanuts, or other snacks.
If you want, affix a chalkboard label to the front of each box so there’s no confusion over whose is whose.

I’m so happy with how these little cardboard serving trays turned out, and they seem sturdy enough–thanks to the duct tape–to last us several summers worth of drive-in movies.

Here are some other things you can upcycle!

10 Things to Make with a Cardboard Box