How to Make Easy Giant Popcorn From Paper

So, it's that time of the year that kids start back to school and fundraisers abound.

My son is in the Cub Scouts and they have one and only one fundraiser for the year. They sell popcorn.

Because it is their only fundraiser, they always have a big kickoff at the pack meeting. This year I volunteered to take part in the event, working on decorations.

I decided to make a couple giant popcorn boxes that we could fill with yellow and white balloons. I wanted to make something that could possibly be reused in future kickoff meetings, so I decided foam board (foam core) as the medium.

My thought was to do a traditional white box decorated with red stripes. Then decorate with writing on the front to say popcorn. I wanted a tapered shape, with a slightly smaller bottom than the top.

Although there are several ways to create the stripe, I decided that the easiest and fastest would be to use colored tape. Marker or paint might have been more cost effective, however I was worried about getting a crisp stripe edge and chose colored duct tape for that reason.

List of items needed for project (to make one popcorn box):

• 4 boards – foam core – 32″ x 40″ ($5.99 each at Hobby Lobby)
• 2 rolls – red Duck Tape – 1.88″ wide ($3.99 each at Hobby Lobby)
• 1 roll – white Duck Tape – 1.88″ wide ($3.99 each at Hobby Lobby)
• razor knife blade and scissors
• ruler
• pencil
• strip of adhesive velcro

Optional items

• painter's tape or easy release masking tape
• 2 sheets – poster board – 22″ x 28″

• white paper or cardstock (to print on)
• Glue stick or school glue

Starting the project: Creating the tapered shape.

First step in creating these boxes was to shape the foam boards. After considering the shape, I decided to taper each side by 3 inches. With one board laid out, I measured 3 inches from the side of each of one 32″ end of the board. A long straight edge could have been used to draw a cutting line from the top corner of one end to the 3″ tapered mark on the other end. After trying a couple different, it seemed that the easiest way for me to mark the cutting line was to use masking tape or painter's tape. (If you try this, be sure to test a small piece to make sure that removing the tape won't damage your board.) After cutting both sides, you now have a trapezoidal shape retaining the 40″ length and the top remains 32″ wide and the bottom end is now 26″ wide.

Calculating Stripe Placement

To calculate the placement of the stripes, I decided to easily begin on the bottom end and mark off 2″ intervals across the bottom end. This let me have an odd number number of 2″ stripes so that I could start and end with the same color. The pattern would be W-R-W-R-W-R-W-R-W-R-W-R-W.

Note: Even though the duct tape is technically 1.88″ wide, I based all of my calculations on an even 2″ because the difference in size was negligible.

At the top, the spacing is going to alter because the red stripe will stay calculated at 2″, but the white will widen slightly. So, with 32″, we subtract 12″ for the width of 6 2″ striped. Now, we need to divide the remaining 20″ into 7 white stripes. This means that the striped, evenly spaced would need to be 2.85″ wide. That's not easy to picture on a ruler, at least not to me, so I will try to describe it into what you might see on a ruler with 1/8 and 1/16 marks. If your ruler has 1/8th measures between inches, your mark will go between the 6/8 and 7/8 marks. If your ruler is more precise, with 1/16 markings, your measure is between 13/16 and 14/16. This pattern is going to be 2.85″ – 2″ – 2.85″ – 2″ – 2.85″ – 2″ – 2.85″ – 2″ – 2.85″ – 2″ – 2.85″ – 2″ – 2.85″.

Quick tip: While you can measure each board precisely, I found it easiest to mark out one board, then apply the red tape stripes. Set that board atop the other tapered foam boards and then it is very easy to mark the lines for the remaining three boards at once without the ruler.

Placing the Red Stripes

Now you are ready to place the red tape stripes on the board. If you prefer to measure your tape before cutting, then you would want to measure about 42″ for each so that the stripe can wrap around the ends of the board. Personally, I did not measure. I pulled out a length of tape and held it over the board to make sure it was long enough and then cut. Line up the edge of the tape to your markings and apply the tape. Continue to add all the stripes.

Now repeat above steps on the other three boards.

Quick tip: The tape is a long sticky strip and can easily get tangled, so it might help to have a second person cut and maybe help place the tape.

Connecting the Box Sides

Now that you have four identical boards with stripes applied, we can start connecting the sides together. Place two boards atop each other with the stripes to the outside. Line up the tapered edges. Measure out a length of white duck tape about as long as your red tape stripes were. Starting about 1/2″ from the outer edge of the foam board, I applied the white duct tape, then wrapped it around both boards to cover about 1/2″ on the other foam board, creating a joint. Opening the boards where both lay flat, fold over any excess at the top and bottom. Then, add duct tape over the inner fold. There will be a slight gap between the boards, that is fine. It will make the fold occur much easier.

Now, fold those back to to original configuration where the red stripes are facing outward. Place a third foam board on top of the stack, this time, with the red stripes face down toward the red stripes of one of the other boards. Apply the white tape to this joint as well. Then reverse the fold (make sure you don't fold over the first board or your join might not be smooth). Cover this joint with white duct tape as well.

Add the last board by following the same process and make sure all the sides with the stripes are facing the same direction when unfolded.

Use the white duct tape to cover the raw edges on the two ends. Don't join these two ends, because we are going to use the velcro to connect these ends. This will let it close more easily for storage. Also, you can use the white tape along the top of the inside of the board to give a more finished look by covering any uneven endings on the red stripes.

Use the white duct tape to create about a 2″ flap at the top and bottom of one side. Place one side of velcro on the flap and the other side on the inside of the other outer edge of the box.

Tip: Keep the velcro close to the edge of the join so that there is not a big gap.

Optional Features

So the basic box is complete. Now there are a few things you might want to do to improve the finished product.

Add a design

You can cut out a shape on a piece of posterboard (Dollar Tree – 2 sheets for $1). Then print out "Popcorn" or whatever you want to decorate your box with on a cardstock or heavy paper that you can cut out and glue to the side of the box.

Tip: Use a site like fonts.google.com to find a fun font to use for your decorations.

Create a shelf to hold balloons

You probably don't want to have to completely fill the box with balloons, so an easy answer is to create something that you can put your balloons on higher up in the box.

I used posterboard, duct tape and velcro to create a "shelf" for the balloons. My posterboard was rectangular so I used duct tape to secure the shorter end to one interior side of the box. The other end did not reachieve completely across to the other side, so I used the duct tape and velcro to reach the additional inches.

To make this happen, I taped the start of a strip of tape near one corner of the poster board and cut off enough that was double the difference needed to reach the other board. I folded the tape over onto itself and trimmed any edges that didn't align. Velcro connected the tape to the opposite side of the box. This was repeated on the other unattached corner of the posterboard. Because we used velcro, the box will fold flat to store and reuse again after the event.

Our decorations helped create a fun enviroment for a great kickoff!

The kids sure enjoyed it!

morganmairaguent.blogspot.com

Source: https://threebonnets.com/2019/09/07/project-giant-popcorn-box/

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