Origami Gift Box

 

Make a small gift box by folding a couple of square pieces of paper

This gift box is made up of two parts, a lid and a base. Both made in the same way from square pieces of paper. It doesn't require any gluing - just folding.

I've used Christmas wrapping paper to make this box. It could be a last minute wrap for a gift or maybe you could make them for Christmas table decorations (my dog doesn't like the cracker bangs, so I make little gift boxes instead and put the joke, hat, chocolate etc into the gift box). 

I've been making these boxes since I was little and once you know how to make them you will never forget. You can make them for any occaision using different papers and in different sizes - just make sure the starting base square is a tad smaller than the lid square (in my example below, I've made the starting base square a centimeter smaller than the lid)

The internal dimensions of the box made in this blog is 7 cm square and just short of 3 . 5 cm deep 

 

You can use almost any type of paper - just make sure it can hold a fold and it's not too thick.

Follow the below link to find out how the box was made

Mummy Box

 

Make this cute Mummy Halloween pillow gift box from black and white card

I made a bat halloween box a couple of years back (click here if you missed it) and thought I'd have a go at another halloween pillow box this year - this time it's mummy!

I used a sizzix pillow box die but you can use any pillow box die you have or download my template - see the link in the 'you will need section'.

It's basically a black pillow box and then it is wrapped in paper strips - maybe you are a neater crafter than me, but I got very sticky doing this one, so make sure your crafting surface is covered to protect it. 

Luna my dog decided to join me in my make this week - she's so cute but doesn't lay still very often - too nosey! So I thought I'd add her photo so you can see what I have to contend with when crafting - she may look like she is asleep but as soon as I try to run something through my sizzix machine, shes batting it with her paw!

Follow the below link to find out how the card was made

Letter Holder

 

Make a letter rack to hold your incoming or outgoing post or your greeting cards

This week I'll show you how to make this cute letter holder from scrapbooking card.

I've made mine to fit A5 envelopes but I will show you how to adjust the size if you wish to make a smaller holder.

It can be used as a rack by your door to remind you to post your greeting cards or maybe just to hold the greeting cards you have made. I've also made a couple to hold advent calendars (I know it's a bit early to be talking about these, but scroll to the bottom of the blog page where I will show you why and what I have done to make a festive calendar).

It might be nice to make one of these as a gift for a friend and fill it with greeting cards that they can post. Or why not make one to hold your favourite recipes?

Follow the below link to find out how the letter holder was made

Money Box

 

Create a money box from card and decorate to inspire saving for your goals

As it's the start of a new year, we often make resolutions or our thoughts just turn to having a great year. So why not make a money box to save for a particular event or occasion or maybe just for a rainy day? You could give the money box away as a gift with a few coins in to start the recipient off on their savings for something particular.

I've made mine to remind me of the summer and my love of going to the beach, having ice creams and cups of tea. I'm going to save my odd pennies for trips to the beach :)

I've used the Bakers Box Thinlits die set by Stampin Up as it can be tied at the top so you can get your coins out just by un-tying the ribbon. However if you have a different type of box die such as a milk carton, I am sure you can adjust it in a similar way to create your money box. Like all my blog pages, I am hopping this will inspire you to use what you have. I have made a window in the back of the money box (by cutting out a rectangle and covering it with acetate) so you can see your collection growing, however you can ignore this and just have a solid money box if you would prefer.

The bakers box die doesn't make a tall enough box for what I needed.  So I will show you how to cut the top and bottom of the die and therefore making the middle section bigger.    

I've made mine out of patterned paper and then went on to decorate it further. You could make yours out of plain card and then embellish it. It can be adapted for so many occasions such as saving for a car, Christmas, rainy day or maybe as a gift for a new born child.

Follow the below link to find out how the money box was made

Parcel Bow

 

Make a beautiful paper bow to decorate your gift

I love decorating my gift parcels, so this week I thought I'd try and make a bow.

I've made this bow out of a piece of A4 printer paper that I printed some Christmas patterns onto, but you could use some wrapping paper - just as long as it's not too thick. If it was too thick, the paper wouldn't curl as well. This particular print was part of a digital scrapbooking kit I purchased from Nitwit Collections - click here to be taken to the website.

I've used Tombow multi liquid glue to hold the bow together. It's my favourite glue as it sticks almost anything together. You could use staples, hot glue gun or double sided tape. It needs to be a really strong glue to ensure your bow does not uncurl!

Follow the below link to find out how the bow was made

Peek-a-boo Cracker

 

Make a cracker and decorate with the Crafters Companion 'Peek-a-Boo Snowman' stamp and die set

This week I have made a decorative band to fit a cracker using a Peek-a-boo stamp and die set. Thought I had better start preparing my Christmas items as the time is just flying!

The instructions below are to make the decorative wrapper that is sitting around the middle of the cracker. To make the cracker itself, follow my instructions here to make the longer cracker. I used a sheet of 12" card from Let It Snow scrapbooking paper pack by artstudio to make the cracker base and some thin white ribbon to tie the ends.

You can get several different Peek-a-boo character sets such as Elf, Deer or Santa and they would all work in the same way I have used the snowman. You can make these crackers as table decorations and fill with hat, motto and sweets or to wrap a gift. 

Follow the below link to find out how the cracker wrapper was made

Quilled flowers

 

Make some pretty flowers that can be used on cards or gift boxes

These pretty quilled flowers need just a little bit of equipment to make - you don't even need special quilling papers. I used coloured A4 paper from my stash. It's best to use paper rather than card as the petals of the flowers if made with card are a little rigid. However the darker coloured flowers I made in this project were made using very thin card, so give it a go, if that's all you have, and see what the end result looks like.

I made them to decorate a gift box, however they can also be used on greetings cards or how about decorating a photo frame. My flowers are about 3 cm in diameter and you can change the size of the flowers by adjusting the width of the paper you cut.

Follow the below link to find out how these flowers and gift box were made

Drawer giftbag

 

Make this lovely giftbox that has two drawers for your gifts

This cute giftbag/box is made from card and has two drawers plus a gap above where you could add a small bag of sweets. The drawers push through from either side and the internal dimension of each drawer is 7 cm by 5 . 5 cm by 2 . 4 cm deep.

This is quite simple to make but just double check each measurement before you make the cut or crease. I've made the main drawers from thicker white card and the outside decorative papers are from Stampin Up's 12x12 designer papers. You could use coloured card for the drawers and even make them without Christmas papers for other occasions.

Follow the below link to find out how the giftbag was made

Christmas House Gift Box

 

Made using Lawn Fawn's scalloped box die and beach hut add on

I challenged myself to make a Christmas house gift box but using Lawn Fawns beach hut add on die that I already have. I've done a previous blog where I made beach huts for my work colleagues as a welcome back to school treat (Click here if you'd like to see this blog)

I managed it ! I turned a seagull into a robin and the life ring into a wreath. It makes a lovely little Christmas gift box. As I'd achieved my goal, I then used another stamp and die set to embellish it even more. I will show you this one at the end of the blog - just scroll down to see. 

Sometimes dies and stamps can be used to create other shapes than what they were intended for. This blog page shows you just one of these. Have a look at what you have in your cupboard - you might find a new use for some of them :) 

Follow the below link to find out how the gift box was made 

Halloween Bat Box

 

Make these fab bat pillow gift boxes out of just black and white card

It will soon be Halloween so this week I show you how to make these cute bat gift boxes. They are made from an A4 sheet of black card and a small amount of white card. You can then fill them with sweets and gift them.

I will attach a link so you can download a template in order to cut out your bat shapes by hand. However if you have a silhouette machine, send me a message via my contact me page (here) and I will email you a file that your machine can cut out.

I made a lot of these for my work colleagues and filled them with Hero chocolates. I can't imagine the chocolates lasted long but they said the boxes were so cute that they would bring them out again next year and refill them!

Follow the below link to find out how the box was made

Beach Hut gift box

 

How to use Lawn Fawns Scalloped Treat Box and Beach Hut add on dies to create a fab little gift box

I absolutely love beach huts and being by the sea. So when I was rummaging through my dies to see what I could make this week, I stumbled across these dies, that I haven't used yet, and thought what a perfect project. Children about to go back to school and the weather has started to get a little colder, so why not build your own little beach hut as a reminder of the sunnier times.

It just takes lots of little bits of coloured card and a bit of patience to cut out all the die pieces. Then it's just a case of gluing it all together. Quite straight forward and simple and once built you can fill with treats or just build to create a sunny display.

Follow the below link to find out how the gift box was made 

Cute little Easter box full of chocs!

Using Lawn Fawn's Eggstra Special Easter stamp and dies to make a bakers box to hold your Easter gift

I found some really cute chocolates wrapped as carrots and they were perfect for my gift to my colleagues for Easter. I used Versamark ink pad to stamp onto a plain green card and then used Stampin Up's Bakers Box Thinlits die to cut the gift box.

My favourite bit is the chocolate looking Easter bunnies on the front - especially as one of the ears has been nibbled!

Follow the below link to find out how the gift box was made

Exploding Chocolate Gift Box

This is a fun gift to make that I am sure will delight many

I am very excited about this make - goodness knows how the chocolate bars made it into the gift without me eating them all first! Valentines is now over so my attention is turning to Easter. I was browsing the internet and found an exploding chocolate gift box for sale - it was rather pricey so wondered if I could make my own - turns out I can. I found a few online instruction videos but struggled to find somewhere that gave me the sizes - not only that I wanted to make it with items I have in my crafting supplies, rather than purchasing larger sheets of card.

So here are my instructions for making an Exploding Chocolate Gift Box. It uses double sided 12 x 12 scrapbooking card so you can adjust it to suit any occasion. You could put wrapped biscuits and teabags or even slip a gift card into the gift. The chocolate bars can't be any bigger than about 9cm in length - the ones I have picked for this gift are the multi-pack bars such as Cadbury Dairy Milk 29.3g x 9 bars.

Follow the below link to find out how the card was made

Christmas Pudding Gift Box

Cute Christmas pudding gift box - or maybe even a reindeer!

I really like making and giving little boxes. The die I used to make this little gift box is from Stampin' up! - 'Mini Curvy keepsake box'. You can cut it from a single sheet of 6"x6" paper and it doesn't need any gluing to put it together. It looks really cute from any Christmas paper but I wanted to make something a little more from it.

And hence my Christmas pudding (read to the bottom of the instructions to find a reindeer as well :) - my youngest son wanted a reindeer, so you can thank him for the extra box )

This isn't too difficult to put together and you should be able to make quite a few in an evening. I will probably make a few of these and fill with chocolate for my work colleagues to help them get through to the Christmas holidays. I've also thought they might make good table name places for the Christmas table - a little chocolate inside and my guests name on a card slotted in between the handles on the top of the box.

The finished box, excluding the handles is about 5cm wide by 5cm depth and about 4cm high.

Follow the below link to find out how the card was made

Cracker gift boxes - really easy to make

Simple to make cracker gift boxes

My thoughts have turned to Christmas again so this week I'll show you how to make these cool but really simple to make cracker gift boxes. You only need a few tools to make these and once you've got the hang of them, you could make them for all your guests for Christmas dinner. You could use them to wrap a hard to wrap gift or add a snap, hat and joke to them to turn them into actual crackers. They don't have to be just for Christmas either - make them in a different colour and pattern of paper, they could be made for birthday's, Easter or wedding favours.

A mini cracker will measure 12cm in length by 3.5cm wide. The body of the box to hold the gift is about 4.5cm by 3.5cm.

A longer cracker will measure about 28cm in length by 3.5cm wide. The body of the box to hold the gift is about 14cm by 3.5cm.

Follow the link below to find out how the cracker was made