Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

School Bus Treat Boxes – a free printable!

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When my sister told me that she’s throwing a school bus themed party for my adorable bus-obsessed nephew, I knew I had a challenge I was up to staring me in the face: create some school bus treat boxes, and then, of course, offer them free here on the blog… I showed her what I did for our Elmo birthday party  and the pillow boxes I made for it, and she wanted some for her event. Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Once I started, I got carried away…

I began with the pillow boxes as planned.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

They are quite cute, with the headlights and tail lights on the outside. One side has a door, the other a stop sign!

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

But then that inspired me further… 

Why not make an actual bus-shaped printable!?

(Note: this box is pretty small – if you’re looking for something larger, check out my pencil box template)

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

I had it in mind originally as a display piece or a printable toy, and it still works that way. But as I was designing it, I realized that I can simply turn the back door into a… door!

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

And voila! It’s a treat box too!

I added wheels with toothpicks so that they can spin and still be a toy. But if you’re looking to cut corners and use it as a treat box, you can definitely just glue on the wheels.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Just like the pillow boxes, the school bus shaped box has all its tail lights in place, with a stop sign on one side and a door on the other. Though I do believe I accidentally made it open the English way (and I don’t even think they have yellow buses there) – whoops!

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Pillow boxes are cool because they are super easy to assemble. But the bus box is cool because… well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?

M has been playing with it a lot and driving it up the wall (better than driving me up said wall…) He is currently playing with it and singing “the wheels on the bus” (the inspiration behind this party).

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

What you need to assemble these free printable school bus treat boxes:

Disclosure: affiliate links are included for your convenience.

  • The free printable files. Print them on cardstock, using a color printer (I used this one with amazing results as you can see)
 

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How to assemble these free printable school bus treat boxes:

Watch the video below to see how the bus-shaped box is assembled! Or, scroll down for the step-by-step instructions:

 


 

As you can see, instructions vary slightly by box. I’ve included some that work for both boxes and then specific instructions for each.

For both school bus treat boxes:

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

1. Print your files. For each one, you’ll see a black and white template/die cut file and a colored one. Make sure to print it so that the “actual size” option is chosen, and not “fit” so that they will match up.

For the pillow boxes, I did include one file that has the die cut printed on the actual design. This doesn’t look as nice but is definitely easier to assemble.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!
Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

2. Tape the template on top of the printed page at all four corners.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

3. You are going to use the back/dull side of your craft knife to “score” the fold lines – that basically means to crease it so that it’s accurate and folds nicely. Use your ruler as a guide along straight edges.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

4. Use the regular/blade side of your knife and the ruler to cut along the straight edges. You can also use your craft knife to cut along the rounded edges, but you may want a pair of scissors to help.

For the pillow school bus treat boxes:

5. Place a thin layer of glue along the smallest fold – the tab.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!
Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

6. Glue it to the inside of the other side and allow it to dry.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

7. Fold the tops in along the curve, with the plain yellow side going first and the side with the headlines going on top.

So that it looks like this:

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

For the bus-shaped school bus treat boxes:

5. If you’re going to make your wheels actually work like mine, use a toothpick to poke through the black dots where the wheels go.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!
Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Do the same with the wheels

6. Fold your box along the score lines. All folds go inward (toward the white side) besides for the front of the bus – the middle crease there folds up.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!
Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

7. If you’re using the toothpicks for the wheels, find where you poked your holes on the sides of the bus. Test where the opposite-side flap goes, and make sure your holes go through that flap too.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

8. Begin gluing your box from the hood. Start with gluing the flaps on one side.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Continue with the other side of the hood, pressing it together from the inside if you need.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

And complete your bus by gluing the flap on the bottom to the other side of the bus. Make sure your wheel holes align if relevant. If you’re using this only as a toy, you can glue the back cover/flap shut. Otherwise, leave that open.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

9. At this point you’ll be adding your wheels. Either glue them in place. Or, make spinny wheels like I did. Dab a bit of Tacky glue at the end of a toothpick.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Slide on a small bead (a large seed bead is perfect), allowing it to push the glue down.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Slide on your wheel from the other end.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

Poke it through your bus.

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

And finish off with wheel #2, a bit of glue, and a bead. Repeat for the back wheels.

And your school bus treat boxes are ready to roll!

Grab these free printable school bus treat boxes for free! They include pillow box and a 3D bus that also makes a great toy. Perfect for back to school parties, transportation themed birthday party, or even as a gift box to thank a bus driver before school ends!

They make perfect favor/treat boxes for a party, or even gift boxes for the bus driver!

I hope you love them as much as I do!

What will you be using these free printable school bus treat boxes for? Which will you use? Comment below!

This post was originally published May 2016.

Click for the coolest free printable school bus pillow treat boxes and paper toys ever! These are wonderful for back to school lunch boxes or for end of year teacher gifts! #papercrafts #treatboxes #freeprintable
 

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20 Comments

  1. Thanks for this template. For the cardstock do we buy the 90 lb or 110 lb in Amazon. Just confused .

    Thanks for your help

  2. My husband has driven a special needs bus and March 31 he is retiring. Every holiday, birthday, etc we put together something special for his students…he only has 20…and this time we wanted it to be special. This is so good for valentines day for his goodies for his kids. Thank you.

  3. For the template with die cut lines, fold it so the lines are inside the box, or simply keep it as a template if you expect to make more.

  4. Thanks for the templates I like to give my school bus students treats at the holidays and I plan on using the pillow boxes

  5. I’m having trouble with the download. It’s a WinZip document and I do not have WinZip. How else can I retrieve the template?

    1. You can download a free trial of winrar, or you can email me at menucha at momsandcrafters dot com and I’ll send the unzipped files to you directly. I hope it’s not too late – I apologize for the delayed response, I was out sick for the past week!

  6. We are doing a staff retreat inspired by The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon. These worked so great!!! i made both the pillow boxes and the box with moving wheels. It was so much fun to see grown adults playing with the buses. They were also excited to be getting the sweet treats inside. Thanks for sharing.

  7. I made these for my daughter’s daycare valentines and they turned out super cute. Thank you for the free template! 🙂

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