Adorable Owl Valentine Box

ByLisa O'Driscoll
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This Owl Valentine Box is a total classroom favorite and surprisingly easy to make. Made from a simple cereal box and colorful craft foam, it’s an adorable and budget-friendly project your kids will love! (As seen on Oprah.com)

Originally published January 2020 – Updated January 2026

A colorful owl craft with a red glitter bow, large eyes, and layered paper feathers in yellow, orange, pink, and red, displayed against a wooden background.
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Owl Valentine Box

When I was a kindergarten teacher, one of my favorite parts of Valentine’s Day was seeing all the creative Valentine box designs my students came up with. From store-bought to completely homemade, they were always full of personality and excitement.

Years later, I started making Valentine boxes with my own kids, creating everything from a unicorn valentine box to a Harry Potter valentine box. Now I’m sharing those same fun ideas on Sarasota’s Suncoast View and coming up with new ones every year, like this adorable Owl Valentine Box. It’s budget friendly, easy to make with a cereal box, construction paper, and craft foam, and perfect for classroom Valentine exchanges.

Take this craft up a notch by printing the matching Valentine cards too!

A yellow and pink owl craft with a red bow is surrounded by six Valentine’s cards featuring cartoon owls and heart-themed designs.

Why We Love This Craft

  • It’s perfect for classroom Valentine exchanges
  • It’s easy to customize – add a bow and bright colors, or skip the bow and change the color combination for boys.
  • It’s easy and fun for kids to make, with simple steps they can follow on their own.
  • There are matching owl Valentine cards for a coordinated classroom set.
  • A printable template is included, making it easy to cut and trace all the owl pieces.

Want to see all 20+ of my DIY Valentine Boxes? Scroll to the end to see the full list.

A worksheet with outlined shapes labeled as Eye 1, Eye 2, Eye 3, Bow, Ear 1, Ear 2, and Beak.

How To Download & Use Your Free Printable Template

  1. Enter your first name and email address in the form below.
  2. Check your inbox. Your template should arrive within minutes.
  3. Download and print.
  4. Cut out the pieces and use them to trace the shapes onto the craft foam. Now you’ve got everything you need to create this cute owl craft!
  5. Scroll down for the full step-by-step tutorial.

Since I’ve made a lot of Valentine boxes over the years, I know tracking down supplies can be half the battle. So I created an Amazon storefront with everything you need for this Valentine box, all in one spot to save you time.

A colorful owl-shaped craft with a red bow, made from layered paper in yellow, pink, orange, and red, sits against a wooden background.
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Owl Valentine Box


Additional Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours
Yields 1
If you’re on the hunt for a Valentine box that’s cute, creative, and easy to make, this Owl Valentine Box checks all the boxes. Made from a cereal box and bright craft foam, it’s a fun classroom-friendly project that’s perfect for Valentine exchanges.

Equipment

Materials
 

Instructions

  • Cover the cereal box in white construction paper. This keeps it from being distracting if the box peeks out through the feathers at all. Use an Xacto knife or box cutter to cut a hole in the back for the valentine cards to go in. (This is best done by a parent).
    1 cereal box, 2 pieces 12"x18" white construction paper
    A closed plain white box sits next to a scattered pile of red, orange, and yellow paper hearts on a white surface.
  • Cut the flowers apart so that each piece has two "feathers". There will be a single petal left over from each one but don't toss them. You will use those later.
    20 foam flower cutouts
    Assorted foam cutouts in the shapes of flower petals arranged on a white surface.
  • Take the pieces that have two "feathers" and glue them in a row across the bottom of the box. Add another row, overlapping the row below it just enough to hide the box. Keep adding rows to the front of the box, until you are slightly more than halfway up.
    A box is partially covered with overlapping foam heart shapes in pink, orange, and yellow, with more foam shapes scattered nearby.
  • Use a large piece of yellow craft foam to make the head, attaching it with hot glue. Leave the sides unglued at the bottom for now, so you can add more feathers later if needed.
    1 each craft foam – yellow, white, blue, black, orange
    A rectangular object covered with overlapping heart-shaped pieces of foam in yellow, orange, pink, and red, with a yellow foam sheet partially wrapping the top.
  • I’d used the flower petals on this side but had just a little space left at the top. I glued on one of the single pieces, cut off the extra part and glued the yellow foam down over it. Some of the “feather” should still be sticking out though.
    Colorful paper hearts in pink, orange, and yellow are arranged along the edge of a white surface.
  • Now, grab the single pieces from the flower and glue three of them together to make a wing. Repeat the step to make a second wing.
    Two sets of colorful teardrop-shaped paper cutouts, each set arranged in a fan shape on a white background.
  • Trace two large white circles, two medium blue circles, two small black circles and tiny white ones for the eyes. You'll also want to cut out a small orange triangle for the beak.
    Note: You can make the eye pieces by finding things around the house that are the right size (which is what I did when I originally made this – yogurt cups, drinking glasses, spice jar lids, etc). I've since created a printable template that you can cut out and trace if you'd prefer.
    printable template
    Two layered circular shapes resembling eyes and an orange triangle below them, arranged on a white background to suggest a simple face, possibly of a cartoon bird.
  • If you have any of the white box peeking through, you can cut some of the spare pieces and add them where needed.
    A rectangular box decorated as an owl with colorful foam cutouts for eyes, wings, and feathers in yellow, orange, pink, and red.
  • Cut two large triangles and two smaller triangles for the ears, rounding them off at the top. I had extra foam scraps from another craft so I used that for the inside ear, but you can use any color you'd like. Glue the ears on top.
    Yellow triangle ears for an owl craft against a plain white background
  • Use the template to trace the bow on red glitter cardstock, then use a black marker to add the details. Hot glue the bow to the owl and your Valentine's Day craft is complete!
    red glitter cardstock
    A colorful, handmade owl decoration made from paper with large blue eyes, a red bow, and layered feathers, standing on a wooden floor against a white plank wall.

Notes

  • If you are using a larger cereal box, especially a family sized one, you will probably need a 12″x18″ piece of yellow craft foam. You can still use the smaller sized craft foam for the eyes, nose and bow. You will also need more than 20 flowers.
  • If making this with a little boy, feel free to leave off the bow. You could also change up the color of the feathers by using pairings like blue/green or red/orange. The newer packets include more colors.
  • When making this with younger children, you may want to use regular craft glue instead of a glue gun.
  • Depending on the age of the child, this may not take a full two hours to complete.

Did You Make This Project?

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    Lisa, author of Fun Money Mom, standing in front of a kitchen counter with a cupcake.

    About Lisa O’Driscoll

    Lisa O’Driscoll is a lifestyle and parenting expert, cookbook author, and the creative force behind Fun Money Mom, a popular blog she’s run since 2014. She’s the author of the children’s cookbook Roll It, Slice It, Mash It, Dice It, designed to get kids excited about cooking. With multiple TV appearances under her belt, she loves sharing her expertise on family-friendly recipes, creative DIYs, and party planning and is always on a mission to inspire and entertain!

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    6 Comments

    1. So cute! Was it hard to get the ears to stay? What did you do for that? Also, where’d you find the red bow?

      Reply

      1. No, it was easy. I just hot glued the craft foam to the owls head…the foam is so light that it stays put really well. I also just realized that since I did the bow last minute, I didn’t have that in the tutorial. I just used red glitter cardstock. If you’re not good at drawing freehand (which I’m not) find one online that you like and use it as an example. I will add that to the tutorial now…sorry for the confusion 🙂

    2. How did you make the head? I mean the bottom part of it.. Did you trace something to make that design?

      Reply

      1. No, I just drew it freehand lengthwise on the craft foam, then cut it out. Then when gluing it to the box, I turned it around so that no pencil marks could be seen 🙂

    3. If you are having trouble finding the flowers like I did you can use hearts, they worked just as well

      Reply

      1. Thank you so much for sharing this! That’s a fantastic idea! 🙂

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