Happenin' How-To: Pretty Boxes

This week's Happenin' How To comes from Mallory of Mallory Alisabeth, 8 year old daughter of a Guin from Camelot's Treasures and an Active Duty Sailor. One day she was incredibly bored and kept complaining she was BOOORED, but her mom was a little busy working on a project of her own. So she gave Mallory a book of origami and some construction paper to keep her busy and out of her hair. As Mallory was busy constructing little sculptures of paper, she hatched an idea to make little boxes perfect for wrapping little gifts in and selling them in her store and local craft shows she attended. These boxes were so popular this past season, Mallory actually ran out of them after her 2nd craft show!

And in the sharing spirit, Mallory wants to share how to make these great boxes with the Homefront Team. They are pretty simple, and make your packaging a little more special! So here goes:

First you need some paper, any pretty paper will do, as long as it's not too stiff. I like to use scrapbooking paper, because there are a lot of choices out there. Once you select your paper, you need to decide on how big you want your box to be - but keep in mind these boxes are supposed to be little. If you use a 12" piece of paper (BTW it must be square) then your box will be around 4" x 4" x 2" (deep), this size is good for bracelets and necklaces.

I've included a video of how to fold the box, but here are the step by step instructions:

1) Fold the paper in half lengthwise. Crease, then unfold.

2) Turn the paper 90 degree and fold paper in half lengthwise again. Crease, then unfold. Your paper should have 4 even sections.

3) Take one corner and bring it all the way to the center point/fold. Crease. Repeat with all corners; you will end up with a smaller square.

4) Fold the paper in half lengthwise. Crease, then unfold.

5) Turn the paper 90 degree and fold paper in half lengthwise again. Crease and then unfold.

6) Set the paper so a straight side is facing you. Fold the side into the center, it should meet the crease that you put in the paper in the last step.

7) Turn the paper around so the opposite side is facing you, and fold the other straight side into the middle, just like the other side. You should end up with a rectangle. Crease well, then unfold.

8) Turn the paper 90 degrees and repeat the same steps, just with the other two sides.

9) Pull out two of the triangle corners, at opposite ends (so East and West OR North and South). Fold in the sides that you didn't pull the corners out [see first picture at right].

10) Push the sides up, so they are now walls.

11) If you put in all the creases where they belong, you should almost be able to push the triangles straight up without effort, to make the other walls. You might have to guide the corners into the box with your fingers [see second picture at right].

12) Once you have the Triangles standing straight up, make sure to crease the inside corners to help keep the box stable. Then fold the triangle down into the box, again follow the creases you have already put in the paper from previous steps.

13) To secure the flaps in the box, you can either use double stick tape (my preferred method) or glue.

14) To make the bottom part of the box, you will have to cut down the paper, to make it fit. Depending on the size of paper/box, you may have to cut off between 1/8" to 1/2" off on ONLY 2 sides of your paper (remember you need to keep it square). And then just repeat all the steps!

I like to decorate my boxes with tags, ribbons, and jewels! Here are some that I have made previously in different sizes for different seasons.

This can be a lot of work, but for my mom and I we can sit watching TV and bang out a bunch of these without thinking about it! So if you like these little boxes, but don't have the time or patience to do it yourself, feel free to stop by my shop http://www.malloryalisabeth.etsy.com/ or search "boxes" on Etsy for other great crafters doing these! Thanks for reading my tutorial! ~ Mallory