Easy box tutorial

I am quite serious about keeping my promises. So here comes the promised box making tutorial. This is my very first tutorial, so, please, leave me any feedback you have.

First things first: what do we need to make a box?

Basic (absolutely necessary) supplies:
- card, A4 or A5 size
- scissors
- glue or double-sided tape

Additional (good to have, but can work without those) supplies:
- cutting blade (craft knife)
- cutting board
- metallic ruler
- bending tool (or a ball pen, which is out of ink)

You can make the box from plain or coloured card. If you have an access to a printer, you can also print an image on your card the way I do for my boxes. Just make sure that your printer is capable of handling something tougher than a plain paper sheet.

I use card sheets which I bought ages ago in Hobbycraft or in Paperchase. I print different patterns on both sides of the card, so the box has pictures both inside and outside.

One A4 size card sheet makes two nice little boxes around 7 x 8.5 cm or 8 x 10.5 cm in size (1.5 or 1 cm deep respectively).

1. So, first I cut my A4 sheet in two halves (in the middle of the long side):

I like using a sharp craft knife and a metallic ruler for this (and that`s why I need a cutting mat - so I don`t cut my table 😅), but scissors will do the job just fine. After the cut, you should have two identical pieces of A5 size.

2. Next, I make the folds. I don`t mark anything on the card, so the final box does not have any signs of measuring etc. If you prefer, you can mark the card with a pencil and erase the marks after making folds and cuts.

I have this paper-cutter, which I once bought with the intention to cut my photo prints. It turned out to be quite bad at cutting paper, but on the plus side it has an additional wheel, which does not cut the paper, but creates nice folds. You can use a ruler with a ball pen, which ran out of ink (or something else with pointy rounded end) to mark the folds on your card sheet.

At the moment of making folds, you also need to decide how deep your box is going to be. I make my boxes 1 or 1.5 cm deep so they can fit through the standard UK letterbox (2.5 cm is the maximum). Basically, the distance between the folds equals the depth of your box.

- You need to make 2 folds from each side and two folds in the middle.

Here is the trick on how to mark and make the middle fold:

The long side of your card (A5 size now) is 21 cm.
- If your box depth is 1.5 cm, you need to make the middle folds located (21-1.5)/2= 9.75 cm from the top and from the bottom. This way they will be located 1.5 cm apart from each other.
- If your box is 1 cm deep: (21-1)/2=10.
But before using this trick just make sure that your paper is indeed 21 cm long. If it`s not exactly 21 cm, adjust the formula by replacing 21 cm with your paper length.

After you mark all the folds your card should look like this (folds are indicated with the stroke line):

3. Now it`s time to cut out the unwanted bits. Just take scissors and make the following shape guided by your folds. Please, note that all flops should be cut at a slight angle so they can fit in when you bend the sides of the box:

4. Applying glue. I use basic craft glue (like Elmer glue) or double-sided tape. Anything that glues together two pieces of a card will work here.

First, we need to glue the bottom part. If you have a pattern printed on your card, this is the moment to make sure that you are starting with the right side (in my case I have some writings here which I want to be on the outside of the lid, so I start glueing together the part without writings).

For the bottom, you only need to glue two short flops and three long side flops. Start with the short ones, then finish with the long ones (they bend inside the box creating stronger side walls).

5. After the bottom is glued together (and the glue is dry), it`s time to fold the lid and adjust the folds (if necessary) so the bottom fits inside the lid. Don`t glue the lid together before you do this:

6. Unfold the lid and apply the glue on the short flops first, then on the long ones. It`s the same as with the bottom part, except for the lid is glued with 4 short flops (so the middle line of your card becomes one of the lid walls):