Birthday box

Just a quickie tonight! Cover a box with gift wrap. Cut a piece of paper 2" wide by 12" long, fold in thirds and attach as the handle. Diecut Spellbinders child doll parts die and dress her with a Jolee's sticker. Then diecut the flower die, layer it and curl th edges up.



It's a great gift box, or just a fun little "basket".


So quick and easy and made in less than 30 minutes!

It's what's inside that counts! (box with lid tutorial)

Well, it could be what's inside your heart, or your spirit, or what's inside the child in you.....but today...it's what's inside the box! Yesterday I made candy boxes and someone asked if it had a lid. Well, no, but I have one that does! This is a fun box....all one piece...made from a 12x12 sheet of paper.



I have an embossed piece of paper (a little different from yesterday's paper) but still from Doodlebug, inc. Today I'm using Ranger's Distress inks, Fired Brick and Peeled Paint. But again, you can use any ink pad.



I'm also using Ranger's Cut n' dry foam. Now I absolutely love this stuff! It comes in a sheet and I cut it up into 1" x 2" pieces. That's what fits best in my hand!



I dab the sponge on the top of the ink pad. Why? Well, I think it saves wear and tear on the ink pads...but it also gives me more control over the amount of ink that gets applied to the paper, and the location where it gets applied.



I usually ink up just the end of the foam sponge.



And then I rub the ink onto the paper. Again, with embossed paper, the raised areas will pick up more ink than the other areas. I like to work over a non-stick craft sheet and drag the ink in from the edges.



On the debossed side of the paper, I simply rubbed the ink pad directly on the paper. I rubbed both green and red. Now, did you know that when you mix green and red, you get a lovely shade of brown? Shall we start a new holiday trend....just use brown???




I also dabbed the ink pad up and down to get the squares. Yes, I think I like my red, green and brown patterns that I got here!



The embossed side with the sponge came out much softer, and I like that just as well!!



You can always use any piece of paper....I just thought I'd have some fun today with this! Now, fold the paper in half. Either way, doesn't matter.



The fold each end in to the middle. That will give you 4 columns



Next, open the paper up and do the same folds on the cross grain. This will result in 16 squares on your paper:



Cut off the 3 squares on the lower right hand corner.



Now it gets a bit tricky. You next want to cut off the lower left 2 squares on the bottom side, but do NOT cut the whole squares off. Leave 1/2" at the top of the squares. I know...confusing...but read through this before starting and I think it will make sense.



that 1/2" is going to be the flap for the lid of the box and will fold up like this:



Next, cut off the remaining squares. This would be the top left 6 squares and then 2 on the left. BUT...you will need to leave a 1/2" lip around that "lid" square. So although I say cut the squares off...cut them paritally off, leaving 1/2" around the "lid" square to make the lip for the lid.



You will cut slits in the lid to form the lip and fold the edges in like this:



And then bring the tab around like this and adhere some tap to secure the ends in a box fashion:



Should look like this:



So, let's go back and take a look at the final template. One square left on the upper right. All 4 squares coming down the second row from the right, then in the 3rd row, it's the 3rd square with a 1/2" border around it from the surrounding squares. Now, does that make just a little more sense?



We're almost done! Now we start to shape the box. You can tape it as you go, but I leave mine untaped..you will see. Start with the far upper right corner and pull that up and shape a corner:



Roll this over to be even with the lid section:



Pull the bottom section up...you can start to see the box come together at this point.



And fold the lid over on top and you have a box. With a lid!



So, that's the instruction, now back to the first photo...the original box that I made....and what's inside!



I use a ribbon to tie the box together, so untie the ribbon....



Lift the lid up and you can start to see there are tags (?) inside....



But wait! When you unfold the box, you will see that it's not tags....



It's TWO flip flop books!



And the inside and outside of this box is covered with wonderful vintage stickers from Crafty Secrets....one of my all time favorite companies! The paper is from the same company....perfect weight for making a flip top lid box with flip flop books inside!



This box was first published in the December 2006 issue of Scrapbooking & Beyond. I think I'll make a few more to hold the caramels on Tuesday. See....I'm still optimistic that we won't eat them all immediately!!!

Now, just remember, its' not what's on the outside that matters...it's what's inside that counts! I hope you will try to play a little with this template and feel free to post your results here!

Origami box

Updated to show that I now have this as a video tutorial - just click here

Tis the season to have lots of candy out and about....anyone want to come over Tuedsay? I'll be making Grandma Hazel's home made caramels. Possibly the best caramels on earth!!! And I need cute little boxes to set the candy in. (Like I think it will last long enough to actually go into a box?) LOL!




I'm using the new Colorbox queues and a 12x12 piece of white embossed paper. 1442 Flourish impressions by Doodlebut Design inc. Nice paper!



First, I'm going to just lightly rub the top of the ink pads across the paper. As you can see, the embossed areas will pick up darker color and the debossed (or flat) areas will be lighter. This is one of my most fun things to do...color paper!



And you can use any ink pad, any paper....even emboss your own paper in your diecut system. But this took about 2 minutes!



Next, we're going to fold the paper in half, both directions. When the peaks are up like in this photo, those are "mountains". If you flip this over, you would have "valleys". So to start, you want your peaks or mountains pointing up like this photo.



Next, take the lower right hand corner and bring it up to the upper left hand corner and press down on the diagonal. Notice you now have valleys on the top. That's good! And I often use a bone folder to press the creases down. I like the one Ranger makes.



Now, open that fold up and flip it over, so that the mountains from the diagonal fold are pointing up. You will want to pop the center down and your paper should look just like this:



Have I lost you yet? If so, just go back and start over! The first time I tried this...it took me 27 attempts! LOLOL! Nope, I just don't give up easy! Next, you want to grab the ends of the diagonal fold and bring them up together in the center.



And while you are holding on to the tips, just lay the entire piece down on the side.



You can flatten this out and you have just completed a basic napkin fold!!!

For me, the important part is to keep the bottom of the fold like I am showing here facing you. It's easy to turn this around as you start making folds from this point on, so take a look from time to time and make sure the bottom looks like this...that it's closed, not open.



The next thing to do is to fold the flaps in from the top down. Notice the open edges of the outside of the paper get folded in right along the center line.



You want to do the other side the same way and look! You have a graduation cap! This is actually a cute little embellishment for graduation cards! But no! We're only about half way done at this point!



The next step is to open the bottom of that last fold like this....



flare it out and press it down.



You want to do that to both corners -



And then flip the whole thing over and repeat these steps on the other side. When you are done, it should look like this:



Now, before you look at the next photo, note you have a front and a back that where the folds are out. You also have 2 "insides" and if you flip one tab over, it should look like this:



When you look closely, you can see a fold line from a prior fold:



You want to fold that inwards, on both sides:



And then flip over 2 tabs....



and you will find another "page" that looks like this:



Again, look for the fold lines and fold inwards on both sides:



and now, you should have what I call an "ice cream cone". OK....I did this at the Mr. Ellie Pooh booth summer before last...we made over 2000 boxes....and we had kids as young as age 5 making them with no help! So come on...don't give up! We're almost there!!!



This time, look at the top. Don't worry that it's torn...that happens..it's paper that you fold 27 different times! It won't show, I promise!



Grab one flap and fold it down as far as it will go:



Should look like this:



Then flip a page over and pull down the next flap....







And continue to do this 4 times. The end should look like a little pocket:



You may need to fold one flap back over to get it to be even like this:



Hey! We're just about done! Now, stand the pocket on it's end:



And very gently start working your hand down inside the top, sort of pushing out the sides. It's paper...so go easy, or you will split the corners open (which I simply tape shut!)



As you tap your fingers around inside, a box will start to form. You can press out any creases in the bottom and it should look something like this:



If you want a flat bottom, just pince a crease with your fingers:



But usually the weight of the candy will hold it down flat! - Well, unless you eat it all!



At this point, just take a little tape and tape the flaps under the box, pressing them square. But note, you can tape them together up over the top and make a basket, or curl them up or down....all kinds of fun variations!



When done, you've got a fun box!



Of course, if you want to make one of these out of Mr. Ellie Pooh paper, be sure to give it to a 10 year old boy and then whisper in his ear what's really in the paper! LOLOL!!!

Still have questions on how to make the box? Just post them here in the comments! I'll get back with answers. Now I'm positive you won't eat all the candy...you'll save some to put inside these cute little boxes!