How to make a tiny box from a christmas card

I know PJ likes to make boxes so here is another way that I've made little boxes for my creations. 

Starting with your favorite tiny box, flatten it out by opening the seam along the inside.  Find a pretty, old card that is big enough for the opened box to fit across.  Any card stock works, too.  This one is for a Christmas present, but any card that is heavy enough stock is good.

Carefully draw around the outside of the box with a sharp pencil.  Also, carefully draw in the fold lines as they will be needed, too.  After drawing the box make sure to make small hash marks on the fold lines, which you do not want to cut through!  Cut off and discard the bottom of the card - the words side. 

Here we are with the box all cut out.  I marked the words bottom and top on the flaps because they can't be reversed or the box won't fit together right.  Just make a mental note of where these are.

To score the lines you left uncut, so that the box will fold up well, use a steel crochet hook, or similar tool, in a small but not ultra tiny size as they tend to cut the paper fibers rather than crush them, which is what you want.  I used a 10.  With a quilting triangle or metal ruler, anything with a strong edge, lay the ruler along side the line and score it with the head of the hook.  Just do this lightly enough to crush the fibers so that they bend evenly and neatly along the line.  Practice on scraps if you feel more confident that way.

Here's the little box, all glued up and ready to use.  I did have to trim a little bit on the flap so that it fit inside the front but that's not unusual for craft where you are cutting along drawn lines.  The smaller the boxes the smaller the tolerances for nano inch size differences. 


I used tacky glue but you can close it with any thing from tape to paper stick.  a very thin line of Tacky Glue works the best, though you do have to stand there and hold the join for a short while.  Count to 50. hehe

There you go!  You have a sweet little box to put some ear rings or a necklace into and give away.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Now go make some awesome boxes. If someone else made a box, you can, too. Commercial boxes are the best patterns, too, so keep your eyes open for likely donor boxes. Most of all, Have some fun!