DIY Milk Carton Holiday Village

And All Through The Town …

Creating a village out of repurposed Hiland Dairy Milk cartons is a great hands-on project for you and your kids this holiday season. Start saving your cartons now so when holiday break starts, your kids can start crafting away! Follow these step-by-step directions and you’ll have a festive village in no time.

DIY Milk Carton Holiday Village

What You’ll Need:

• Empty Hiland Dairy Milk cartons, various sizes
  • Tip: Hiland Dairy Whipping Cream and Hiland Dairy Half & Half cartons also work.
• Brown spray paint
• Sandpaper
• White acrylic paint
• Paper napkins
• Cereal box cardboard
• Buttons, various colors and sizes
• Mod Podge
• Silver and black permanent markers
• Snow-Tex
• Holiday-themed puffy stickers
• Craft jewels and beads, various shapes and colors
• Scissors
• Paintbrushes, foam and nylon or synthetic
• Glue gun or tape
• Tacky glue

Instructions:

• Rinse cartons with warm, soapy water. Allow to dry completely.
• Open the tops of the cartons. At the “pour” side of each carton, cut the upper corner triangle out using scissors, leaving a little border around the “pouring” triangle. Repeat on the opposite side of each carton.
• Hot glue or tape the “pouring” triangle of each carton to the side as shown to create the tops.

• Using scissors, cut off any plastic pour spouts.
• Using a paintbrush, paint a thin layer of Mod Podge onto one side of the cartons and place a paper napkin over the top, gently smoothing it out. Continue this process until all cartons are covered entirely. Allow to dry completely.

• Using foam paintbrush and Mod Podge, add one more layer of napkin onto each carton. Allow to dry completely.
• Spray-paint each carton brown. Allow to dry completely.

• While the spray paint is drying, cut the cereal box cardboard to create a rooftop for each carton.
  • Tip: Cut strips as wide as each carton with a 1/4- to 1/2-inch overhang.
• Using sandpaper, rub off the any colored print on the cereal box cardboard rooftops, leaving a rough surface.
• Paint each rooftop with white acrylic paint. Allow to dry completely.
• Hot-glue the rooftops to the top of the cartons.

• Using a nylon or synthetic paintbrush, spread the Snow-Tex on the rooftops and gently press on buttons. Allow to dry completely.

• Using tacky glue, decorate the cartons to create a holiday village using markers, stickers, jewels and beads.
  • Tip: I created a couple of houses, a school and a market. The possibilities are endless, so start creating, Divas!

Diva’s Tip

You can add weight to the buildings by pouring some rice or dried beans into each carton before attaching the rooftops.

~The Dairy Diva