Engineer a Surprise Box
Activity Guide. October 2025.
This project is inspired by Marianne the Maker, a storybook that follows a young girl Marianne who decides to ditch soccer practice so she can make time for making at home. The truth is, soccer isn't really her thing--she's been itching to spend some time to tinker at home. While we don't recommend lying to your parents about how you're feeling to get out of a full schedule, we understand the desire to set aside time for making inventions.
Making is a process that we have make time for. Sometimes life and other events happening in our day-to-day get in the way of maker-time, or maybe we lack the resources to get into the process. When we finally get around to it, we encounter some really cool moments in the process, and we often surprise ourselves at the things we can do and inventions that we make. This season, when you get the chance, find a container sitting at home that needs to be refreshed. Tinker with this container and turn it into a surprise box.
Read Marianne's full story by finding this book at Rediscover Venice and Mid City.
Written by Kelly Corrigan and Claire Corrigan Lichty; illustrated by George Sweetland.
Think like an inventor
This illustrated storybook shows the creative, messy process of young inventor Marianne. If you look carefully within this spread, you'll notice that Marianne tinkers with inventions by taking objects that already exist within her room and designing/refreshing them to give them a new purpose or a new look -- you might recognize this process as creative reuse.
The surprise box project, created by Rediscover's very own Yeltsin Penado, takes the idea of using containers (boxes, cans, etc.) and having "surprises" pop out of them when you open them. You can make these containers, but you can also find one at home from old gift boxes or (washed food containers) to start with.
For example, take this old gift box. It's probably useful to use for winter holidays, hence the snowflakes. I've had it for a while and I'm ready to give it a new look! Using my imagination, I brainstormed: Let's use this box for a new invention. What if this box was hypothetically magical, and gives you sushi when you open it? What if, when I open it, it lifts up the cover, but the sushi lifts up without me holding the sushi?
To think like an inventor, we must:
- Think of a problem to solve: What's something that hasn't been invented yet to solve that problem?
- Ask questions: What if...? How do I..? What do I need to...?
In this case, it seems silly to make a surprise box that shows you floating sushi, but have you ever seen one? Did you know this surprise box would still be functional? Keep reading to find out how.
STEP 1 - Make a sketch.
Every invention starts with a sketch.
Draw the container. While you're sketching, browse through some materials you might want to use. Sketch out your surprise elements and designs. Label materials where you imagine you'd use them.
STEP 2 - Gather your tools and materials.
Materials
- Cardboard/Paperboard
- Crafting paper
- Bottlecaps/buttons
- String
- Fabric/Felt scraps (*PRO TIP: samples from home improvement projects such as paint samples, fabric/carpet samples, and similar items.)
- Other materials as needed!
Tools
- Scissors
- Kitchen scissors work well for cutting cardboard
- Screwdriver or awl
- Markers
- Make it colorful!
- Pen/Pencils
- *Optional: hot glue gun and glue sticks.
Many of these tools can be found in our Tinkering Toolkit.
STEP 3 - Decorate the container
Before decorating, I used an awl to poke some "invisible string" into the box cover because this string will help me give the illusion of a floating nigiri later. It's important to consider doing this before the decorating so you can hide it with your design.
There's no wrong way to do this: Decorate your container to fulfill what your design needs.
You can use:
- A box (or part of one.)
- Food containers
- Build the container yourself.
In this case, I decorated the box to make it look like a floating wooden plate. The top of the box was decorated with a piece of fabric that had sushi printed on it--I found these scraps at Rediscover Venice.
STEP 4 - Create the pop-up item
What's the surprise that will pop up out of the surprise box? Make that item and attach to the string.
There are other ways to make something pop-up! See the examples at the end of this guide to see how else you can engineer the surprise box.
Consider using the following adhesive techniques with different material combinations:
Use tape, liquid glue or glue sticks when sticking...:
- paper on paper
- paper on cardboard
- leaves on paper and cardboard
- paperboard with all of the above
Use tape or hot glue when sticking...:
- 3-D plastics
- Fabrics on paper or other fabrics
- Metals or tin on plastic/cardboard
- Sticks/skewers on cardboard (You can also use tape for this.)
- Other 3-D materials
Learn to make stable attachments by studying the Cardboard Connections techniques from the Boxitectures activity guide.
**PRO-TIP: Try different ways to use maker tools; art is experimental! It's okay to experiment as long as you use the tools safely. Ask a grown-up for guidance or watch our Tiny Techniques videos for how-tos.
ADULT HELPERS
Give your your young makers time to explore themselves through art and tinkering!
For any tips on how to use specific tools safely, visit our YouTube library for Tiny Techniques.
RESOURCES
Activity Guide written by Hanabee Cartagena.
Concept by Yeltsin Penado.
