Tutorial: Paper Box

Paper Treat Boxes Tutorial

For each box, you’ll need:

• 2 square pieces of heavy paper (the same size)
• a ruler
• a pencil
• a pair of scissors

Step 1:

You’ll need to make one piece of paper smaller than the other, to create a smaller bottom and a larger lid.  My paper in this example was 6 inches square, and the finished box is about 2 inches square.  Mark off about 4 millimeters from each edge, draw straight lines down each side, and trim off the excess. 

The thicker your paper, the bulkier your box top and bottom will be, and the larger the difference between the top and the bottom will need to be. 

Step 2:

Draw a line from one corner diagonally to the opposite corner.  Do this as perfectly as you can.  Repeat for the other two corners. 

Step 3:

Fold one point into the center, placing the point directly on the “x” you’ve drawn.  Repeat for all corners.  You may need to press down across your folds with a bone folder, or the edge of your scissors, depending on the weight of your paper. 

Unfold the points and you’ll have this:

Step 4:

Fold one point back along the fold line you made in the last step.  Keeping the point still, fold the bottom edge up to match the horizontal pencil line like this:

Repeat on remaining sides, to make this:

Step 5:

On two opposite sides ONLY, cut along the fold lines to the small center square.  You’re cutting up through 2 fold lines, or squares on the grid (where the point of the scissors stops in the photo), on two opposite sides. 

Here’s what it should look like:

Step 6:

Now comes the fun part!  Keeping the cuts you just made perpendicular to your body, bring the left and right sides up towards each other:

Keeping the sides up, bring the points down into the inside of the box and point them towards each other:

Then, pull the other two flaps around and overlap them, forming the other two sides of the box:

Step 7:

Next, take the remaining two sides and fold the points into the center of the box, over the top of the flap sides you’ve made.  Crease the top of this seam well.  If the points don’t stay down on their own, add a small strip of tape to secure them. 

 

You did it!  Now, repeat all steps with the other piece of paper to make your box bottom.