Paper Boxes - Cheap and Cheerful Packaging

Hello! I am still here - but was busy with my *real* life for the last few days. Not too busy to craft, though, and there are three (3!!!) things I will show in Craft-Werk over the next days. Not all of it is quite finished yet, but there is one thing that I would like to show off already.

If you are following the blog regularly, then you will know that I was quite excited to submit a donation to the Craft Hope for Haiti-initiative. And you may remember that I was thrilled my donated flower corsage got sold very quickly. I have now received the details of the buyer and the corsage is ready to be shipped on Monday.  Lying in bed this morning, I was wondering how I could ship it without it getting squashed and damaged. And then I had the Eureka moment - why not fold the Origami box that my mum always makes as her little party piece?

 

This is another really simple Origami piece - one that even I can do... In order to get a slightly sturdier box, I printed some white cardstock with a cheerful, dotted design that I had downloaded from Canon Creative Park. (Seriously - I can't mention this enough: The Canon site is just fantastic!!! No need to buy pricy Origami paper anymore! There are tons of nice designs under the "Scrapbook" tab which you print on paper - and there you have it!!!)

For this little box you need square paper - so just cut your A4 size, printed paper, determine a square shape and cut off the excess paper. Then you can quickly fold your box in a matter of minutes. You need to place the "nice" side down on your table when you are folding, so that the design will be visible on the box. Neatly, it will be visible both on the outside and on the inside. The more exact you are when folding, the neater it will come out, of course. As with most (all?) Origami you do not need to glue anything down - it is all held in place by the folds! Cool!

Update: I have been persuaded to upload a video tutorial for this origami box, as well. So here comes the fuzzy clip - apologies for quality. But you will get the general drift of the project.



My box was made from a square piece of paper that was 21x21cm (roughly 8.5x8.5 inches). The resulting box is 7x7cm in size (2.75x2.75 inches). If you want a matching lid for your box, just make your square paper a little bit smaller - maybe cut off half a centimetre on the two sides. Then the two boxes will neatly slide into each other. So here it is - isn't the corsage nicely packaged?

This is a cheap and cheerful way of packaging little gifts. Fill it with M&Ms for Valentine's Day. Or if you are an Etsy seller, here is a cute box for protecting your precious handmade items when you are shipping to someone. It doesn't cost anything or  take long, but cute packaging makes such a difference for your buyer. Just imagine how pleased they will be when they open their delivery and find this...

Make them in all sizes - I made another small one just for fun and to show here - this would be great for a ring or any kind of small jewellery gift.



 



 
Best,