DIY Paper Boxes

I am so glad you want to learn more about gifting some DIYs this season. This how-to brings me back and holds a special place in my heart. My great grandmother taught me how to make these simple paper boxes. She used old wallpaper as her material and would gift these boxes to us great grandkids. Most of her boxes were quite small but the technique can be used on all sorts of sizes.

Paper Boxes

MATERIALS:

2 12”x12” Cardstock patterned paper

Ruler

Pencil

Scissors

Washi Tape

Assorted Ribbon and Baker’s Twine

Gift Tags

*** All of these materials can be found at your local craft store. For my selection of ribbon and baker’s twine I searched Target’s Dollar Section and found the cutest holiday ribbons for such a deal!

PREP:

To prep your paper for the BOTTOM half of the box(this half needs to be a little smaller than the top half to fit inside), measure ½” from one side of the piece of paper. Mark 2 pencil points indicating the ½” and draw a line across the page
On a perpendicular side, repeat the first step.
Cut on your pencil lines creating a smaller piece of cardstock paper. Your new size of paper should be 11 ½”x 11 ½”.

PREPARE:

Fold cardstock(white side in) corner to corner. Open and fold opposite corners creating an X in the paper.
Open folded paper, place patterned side down on table. Take one corner and fold it into the center of the paper.
From the corner you just folded, fold the end of the paper up into the center fold.
Open folded corner, repeat on all sides creating a grid pattern.
Once all corners have been folded, open up paper and locate the 4 middle squares. Using a pencil draw dots in all 4 corners of that square(that is made up of 4 squares).
Using a pencil, draw 4 lines on the folds from each dot you marked to the outside of the paper. This is your cutting reference.
These lines should be parallel.
Using scissors, cut these reference lines.
There will be 2 corners that resemble “triangles” and 2 corners that resemble a “house”. Take one triangle corner and refold the corner on the fold lines. On the fold of the middle 4 squares fold the side up and folding in the cut tags. Do this to the other triangle side
Take one “house” side and fold it up and over the cut tags. You have just created 3 sides of your box.
Repeat this on the other “house” side.
Place a small piece of washi tape on the inside to secure corners.
Repeat these steps on bottom half of box paper.
Add 2 pieces of coordinating ribbon or baker’s twine tying them together in the center of the box. Add a tag to finish the gift.