Gift Boxes

These are a lovely little gift box that can used for any occasion when you  want to give a little gift.
I have made them for Christmas and mid-winter dinners but they could be used for any occasion even as for favours at a wedding.

I used old Christmas cards for these ones and you could use any occasion cards for your theme or craft card of different colours and patterns.

There is no gluing required so it is a bit like origami but there is a little bit of cutting required.
They are best made on a flat service.

You will need scissors, a ruler and pencil along with the cards you are using.

Cut an exact square from your card.
This will be the top/lid of your box. The box will be a third of the size of square you shape. That is, if you cut a 9 cm square your box will be 3 cm square.

Cut another square about 1 cm smaller than the top/lid in white card or the colour of your choice for the bottom/base of you gift box.
If you are using ‘used’ cards check that there is no writing on one side (the outside) of the card as this will be seen when the box is made up. (ie if someone has written a letter and used the back of the card you may have to find other card or make sure the middle of the white card is blank.)

Fig 1

Find the middle of the squares.
Either fold in half creasing very slightly; opening and folding again in the opposite direction. Or draw, on the inside, in pencil from corner to corner diagonally on both directions.

Fig 2

Step 1:
Fold and crease the four corners to the middle of the square being exact so there is no over lapping. (Figs 1 & 2)

Fig 3

Step 2:
Fold the sides in half to the middle, crease, open up and repeat for the other sides.  (Fig 3)

Fig 4

Now open up again and note the pattern of creases you have made. (Fig 4)


Step 3:
Holding the square in a diamond way and using the scissors, cut along the creased lines to the right and left of the point/corner of the diamond, closest to you, to the point that will be the corner of the box.
It will look like you have cut through two 'segments' of the fold pattern.

Fig 5

Rotate the square 180⁰ and repeat the last step making sure you are cutting the opposite corner of the box! (Fig 5)

Fig 6

Fig 6 shows the 'taggy' bits referred to below and a clearer view of the folds.

Fig 7

Fig 8

Step 4:
Now refold the points/corners that have not been cut to the middle (Fig 7) and then fold in half again as at the beginning, (e.g. Fig 3)  allowing the second fold to sort of ‘stand up’. (the side of the box e.g. Fig 8)



Step 5:
Fold the two ‘taggy’ bits (as shown in Fig 6) at the end of these folds, inwards so they line up with the base of the box.

Fig 9

Step 6:
Fold up and over the 'pointy' end that you have cut so the point/corner folds into the base of the box and lines up with the points/corners already in there. (Fig 8)

Fig 10

Turn the box and repeat step 6 on the opposite end. (Fig's 9 & 10)



Repeat steps 1 to 6 with the bottom/base white square.
This box (the base) will end up smaller so that the top/lid can slip over it. (Fig 11 & 12) 

Fig 12

Fig 11

You can see in the fig 12 that the white card I used had some writing on it and it shows so this is the area you need to check when choosing card to make sure it is blank.
As you can see by the red of the card in the lid only one side of the card you use needs to be free of writing etc as it will be the 'outer', as the other side  will be completely hidden.

If you want, you can glue the points to the base (at step 6) so the boxes will be a little more secure (and so people can't see what you have used!!)