Re-purpose a Lunch Box and Make a Gypsy Caravan

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Do you believe in fairies? I do, I do, and I love re-purposing odd bits and turning them into fairy abodes. Like this little Gypsy caravan that we made for a group of travelling fairies that camp out at the bottom of our garden in Spring. And I bet you would never have guessed that we recycled an old lunchbox to make it too.

 

Yup, this old, plastic lunchbox 😀 If you remove the handle at the top, it’s the perfect base for a Gypsy caravan. If you don’t have a lunchbox, you can make this Gypsy wagon using a tin can.

 

Okay, before we get to the tutorial, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And don’t forget to click the subscribe button so you’ll never miss a post!

What you need

Besides an old lunchbox, you’ll need:

• Ice cream sticks
• Bark
• Gorilla Glue
• 4 x Wood Slices
• 2 x Skewers
• Craft Paint
• Small Beads (optional)

 

Transforming the Lunchbox into a Gypsy Caravan

For the roof, we used a large piece of bark. Clean it off first to get rid of any cobwebs and dirt.

 

Soak the piece of bark in a bucket of warm water and then tie it tightly to the lunchbox lid. As the bark dries, it will take took on the shape and curve of the lid. Depending on how thick the bark is, it can take a few days to dry completely.  If I remember correctly, ours took about a week.

 

Once the bark dries, remove it from the lid and stick it down permanently with Gorilla glue. There will probably still be a few gaps between the lid and the piece of bark, but that was easy to fix.

 

All you need is love, trust and a little bit of fairy dust. Click to Tweet

We were out of fairy dust, so we used ice cream sticks instead 😉 They were stained and then cut to fit snugly under the roof.

 

If you’re going to clad the lunchbox with ice cream sticks as we did, it’s best to paint the lunch box first. That way, any small gaps between the ice cream sticks won’t be so obvious. To make the door, we used a few more ice cream sticks and some beads for the two hinges and door handles.  That’s the fun bit about making something for the fairies. You can use whatever you have and just let your imagination do the rest. You can find a detailed tutorial to make fairy doors here.

 

To make the windows, we used these pretty little wire bits that I found at the bead shop down the road. We stuck them to bits of aluminium tape and then onto the sides of the lunchbox.

 

I ended up changing my mind about the windows once I started putting the Gypsy caravan together and replaced them with round windows instead. That happens sometimes 😉

Finishing Everything Off

The Gypsy caravan is almost finished except for the wheels. After throwing a few ideas around, we decided to make a base from a piece of wood that we cut to size.

 

While I stained the base to match, Hubby cut four equally wide wood slices and marked the center point …..

 

.. before drilling a hole on the mark. The hole needs to be big enough to fit the skewers through. The skewers will become wheel axles.

 

To attach the wheels to the base, position the skewer axles and drill two holes—one towards the front of the platform and one towards the back. Insert a piece of wire into each hole and loop it back into the hole, as shown below.

 

Insert an ice cream stick in the loops so they don’t slip back through the hole, and then add the skewers on the bottom of the platform.

 

For hub caps, I used some silver beads and just glued them over the tips of the skewers.

 

To finish off, I added some embossed metal strips to create a small railing around the platform.

 

I think it was at this point that I realized that the windows didn’t seem to fit.  So I cut two ornate window frames from sturdy cardboard and stuck them over the old ones.

 

The round windows seemed to fit the whole look better. What do you think? And no Gypsy caravan is complete without a few posters.

 

The posters were mod podged onto the fairy Gypsy caravan.  Don’t you think they add such a lovely pop of color? Sorry, I can’t seem to find the photo I took of the back, grrrr I hate it when that happens.

The fairies made me do it 😉 Click to Tweet

 

I love how it turned out, and the wheels make it perfect for all types of road conditions 😉

 

There’s even a little ladder that we made by glueing twigs together. I know fairies can fly, but what if Thumbelina needed her palm read or something 😀  She wouldn’t be able to get up there.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

If you look carefully, there are so many things you can use to make something for your fairies. We’ve repurposed bottles to make a little toadstool fairy apartment and even a lampshade too. Have you used any unusual items in your fairy garden?

If you like the idea of making a fairy Gypsy caravan from a lunchbox, don’t forget to pin it for later.

 

 

Oh, and if you’re looking for some of the things we used, we’ve got you covered. Disclosure: Clicking on the links below means we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry, it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us keep our fairies happy 😉

And if you prefer to buy rather than DIY

Sending you blessings and fairy kisses as always. Thank you for popping in for a visit.

Last update on 2026-08-16 / Source Amazon Affiliates