Papercraft Valentine's Gift Box

A fun small project that can be finished in about an hour. I found the pattern at freeprintable.com. They have several other gift box patterns.

Step 1: Setup, Find and Print Your Pattern

I needed a glass board for cutting on, a small razor knife (scissors would work as well), a steel ruler, a large pair of straight hemostats (optional) and a tube of super glue. You want to use heavy cardstock as opposed to regular printer paper.

The pattern from freeprintable.com is where i started. But I wanted to change the exterior decoration. You can find hundreds of websites to get something you like. I picked a colorful exterior and then a black and white floral for the interior. You establish the interior by printing on the reverse side of the sheet.

Step 2: Cut Out the Box

Using the razor knife and the straight edge, cut out the box.

Step 3: Crease the Fold Lines

Using the razor knife and the straight edge, form the crease lines.

Place the ruler on the line and run the back edge of the razor down the line applying firm pressure.

Step 4: Copy the Pattern to Your Designer Sheet

Place the red cutout pattern over the designer sheet that you picked.

Then just cut out the sheet just as before.

Step 5: Prefold Your Box

Go over each crease and break the paper to establish the folds.

All the folds are made toward the interior of the box.

Step 6: Connect the Sides

Apply a line of super glue along the tab and glue the sides together.

This is where I use the hemostats to hold the parts together.

You could just as easily hold them together by hand.

Step 7: Fold and Glue the Bottom

Fold the bottom "U" shaped flap in, followed by the angled flaps.

Tuck in the tab through the "U" slot. You may have to trim the tab down a bit to get it to fit properly.

Once it's folded, put a drop of glue under the tab to hold it firmly together.

Depending on what you want to put in the box, you may need a small platform. For example, I was using this gift box for earrings.

Step 8: Finishing

Using an off cut, I traced out a square the size of the box bottom. Then turn the box 45 degerees to determine where to trim the corners to get an octagon. Off 4 of the side I extended out the "legs". 2 are the same length, 1 is long and the opposite 1 is short. This will give the platform an angled slope.

For the earrings I simply punched 2 small holes in the platform to attach them.

Finally, the lid of the box may need to be trimmed slightly in order to get the box to close properly.

Have Fun!