Most people have probably seen those little
boxes made from Christmas cards. These are the easiest directions I
have ever found. Most of the instructions I've seen involve a lot of
folding and drawing of complicated lines, etc. These are actually easy!
The boxes can obviously
be made from any greeting card, not just Christmas ones. These make
great little gift boxes or can be used to hold office or craft supplies
like paper clips, tacks, push pins, beads, etc. Christmas ones can be
hung on the tree or piled beneath a miniature tree, where they look adorable. One creative person used them to decorate a wreath, as I saw in an old magazine, but obviously this would need to be an indoor wreath to protect the boxes from dampness.
As you look over your stash of old cards, it will quickly become clear to you that not every card will work for this. It needs to be either an allover design or perhaps something floral, like the poinsettia and mistletoe cards I chose. (If you don't have any suitable cards and want to try this anyway, then simply use any cards you like and then wrap the finished boxes in wrapping paper.)
Here's what you do:
1. Cut apart a greeting card along the fold, separating the front from the back.
2.
Start with the back part of the card. Using a ruler, draw lines from
corner to corner on the unprinted side of the card to form an X. The
center is where the two lines of the X meet.
3. Fold up each of the four sides of the card to meet the center of the X. Crease the folds well.
4.
Open the card back up to reveal the creases you've made. Now, holding
the card vertically, carefully cut on the two vertical crease lines at
the top and bottom of the card, just to the point where they intersect
with the nearest horizontal crease.
5.
Fold in the tabs you just created by following step 4. You can now
see how this is going to form a box. Tape the tabs inside the box.
(You may find that each end of the box -- the part between the tabs --
stands up a bit higher than the rest of the box. If this happens, it is
not a problem. You can simply fold the excess down inside, over the
tabs, and tape it in place. Or, if you prefer, you can simply trim off
the excess card before taping.) You have just made the bottom of the
box!
6. Now, repeat steps 2 through 5 with the front part of the card, which will make the top of your box.
7.
Obviously, this produces a box top and bottom which are exactly the
same size, which sometimes means that the cover doesn't go on too
easily. Usually, if you just squeeze the sides of the box gently, the
cover will go on just fine.
These
directions look far more complicated than the process actually is.
I've made loads of these boxes with kids over the years, and it really
is easy enough for even a 5-year-old to do with some guidance and maybe a bit of help with the creasing. So have fun with these cute
little boxes!
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