Make your own gift box with lid
...from a single sheet of paper, with no scissors or glue!
Have you ever wanted to make your own gift box with matching lid, but you only had one piece of paper left in the right color or pattern? Well this design is perfect for those times, because box and lid are made from a single sheet.
The other great thing is that it takes only half the time to
make your own gift box. There's no messing about with lids that are too tight or too loose, and the lucky recipient of this box can never lose the lid :-)
(Not the sort of box you're looking for? Instead, learn
how to make gift boxes with separate lids.)
With the
picture instructions and
video tutorial on this page, you'll be able to make your own gift boxes in no time. You'll find that making gift boxes is as simple as 1-2-3.
A little while back I made my sister a beaded pearl
necklace with matching
earringsfor her birthday, and this (above) was the box I wrapped them in.
This is a really versatile design, and worth mastering. By using different papers and ribbons you can make gift boxes for all different moods. In no time you'll be making gift boxes that are funky or floral, cute or classic.
You don't even need scissors to make this box. How neat is that? The design was invented by
Robin Glynn, and my husband wrote detailed instructions so that you can make your own gift box even if you've never folded a paper gift box before or done any sort of origami.
Okay, on to the instructions. I'll start with the picture instructions, but you can skip ahead to the
video tutorial if you'd prefer.
With this design, the way you make your own gift box is to make a whole bunch of creases on a piece of paper or card, and it seems like not much is happening. Then, like magic, all those creases let you fold up the paper into a box at the end. Quite nifty, really. In order for it to work, you need to
make all the creases very firmly.
The best sort of paper to use is thin, stiff card, a bit stiffer than the sort of stuff that greeting cards are made from. The bigger the box, the stiffer the card you should use.
A quick note on sizing: Suppose you start with 12 inch by 12 inch piece of paper or card. Then the final box will be just over 4 inches wide and 2 inches high. So if you know what width you want the final box to be, multiply it by three, and that's about the size of the square you should start with.
Step 1: Start with a square piece of paper. If it has a pretty colour or pattern on one side, start with that side facing down. Fold and unfold along the diagonals.
Step 2: Fold each corner to the centre, then unfold again.
Step 3: Fold the top corner back down to the centre, then fold the bottom corner up to meet the top edge.
Step 4: Make the little crease shown by the dotted line here, by bringing the top-right edge of the paper to meet the edge of the folded up corner. Then unfold everything again.
IMPORTANT: Only fold as far as the dotted line goes in this picture, not all the way along.
Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 on each corner of the square. So, rotate the paper 90 degrees to the right, so that the next corner faces upwards. Repeat steps 3 and 4, shown in this picture as folds A, B, C. Then unfold, rotate another 90 degrees, and do folds A, B, C again, etc, until all for corners are creased.
Step 6: Phew! Your piece of paper is now covered in creases. Turn it over so that the nice side faces up. Then fold and unfold along the lines shown here.
Step 7: Turn the paper over again so that the nice side faces down. Lift the mid-point of each edge to make the paper take the shape shown here. The paper will take this shape naturally and easily because of all the creases you made in the previous steps.
Hurray, it's starting to look box-like!
Step 8: Remember the funny little crease you made in step 4? Well, now it's going to come in handy. Fold over the edge of each of the poking-up corners until the box looks like this. You'll be folding along the same crease you made in step 4.
Step 9: The four poking up flaps are going to be the lid. Fold one of them down, like my husband is doing with his thumb in this picture. You can use both hands if you like... the only reason my husband was doing this one handed is because he was juggling with a camera at the same time :-)
Step 10: Fold down the next flap to the right. It's important to work around clockwise, otherwise the flaps won't tuck in properly.
Step 11: Still working clockwise, fold down the next flap
Step 12: Tuck in the last flap like this
Step 13: Well done, you've finished!
As a finishing touch, you can attach a strip of ribbon, like I did in the feature photo at the top of this page. I just attached the ribbon around the edge with some double sided tape, and stuck a little bow to one of the lid flaps on top. The bow is tied just a like a shoelace knot.
Now you can go ahead and make your own gift boxes from all types of different papers for different occasions. Christmas themed papers, love-heart-covered papers for Valentine's Day... get creative!
