Making Gift Boxes

Catherine Fournier

This is a great Christmas craft activity for boys and girls aged 8 and up. Our Andrew, when he was 13, spend weeks experimenting with different styles of paper and making tinier and tinier boxes that fit inside each other.

Using the pattern below, you can make boxes of any size, out of almost any material. Old Christmas cards or calendar pictures make great boxes. You can use these boxes as gift wrapping, give them as gifts, or use them yourself to store small Lego, Meccano, or model pieces.

All you need is:

• a pencil,
• a ruler,
• some clear tape
• and some old Christmas cards or other heavy paper.

First decide what you want to show on the outside of your box. Draw a rectangle around it.

On the back of the paper, draw diagonal lines (X) from the corners.

After that, draw the fold lines. Make sure that the fold lines met exactly on the diagonal lines you drew.

Fold the fold lines. Use the edge of a ruler to keep them straight. Cut the cut lines.

Fold the sides of the box up, and the cut ends in. Tape them together.

Then fold the ends of the box up and fold them over the sides. Tape the ends on the inside of the box.

To make a lid for your box, cut another rectangle the same size, but make the fold lines 3/8 of an inch further apart (closer to the edges of the rectangle.)

This will make the lid just big enough to fit over top of your box.

Experiment with different sizes of rectangle and fold lines to make deeper, shallower, bigger or smaller boxes.

How tiny a box can you make? How many boxes can you nest inside each other?

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