HOW TO MAKE A GIFT BOX FROM AN OLD CHRISTMAS OR BIRTHDAY CARD.

Learn how to make boxes out of old greetings cards.A great way to recycle old Christmas or birthday cards and give them a new lease of life.

This is another one of those crafts that I used to make in school. It's a simple and inexpensive way to create gift boxes for small presents like sweets or tealights. We used to make these little gift boxes out of old recycled Christmas cards but since it's Spring and Christmas is quite a way off I decided to make mine out of birthday cards instead.

I've showed you how to make a simple diy gift box before using a score board but as much as I love it I know it's not something everyone has. This time I wanted to show a quick, foolproof method without a scoreboard in sight.

I bought some new cards for this diy. I fell in love with that llama and the sausage dog is super (get it?) cute. I liked the idea of using the birthday messages as an extra surprise when you open the box but you could just as easily recycle old cards. Simply cut off the fronts and mix and match your designs.

Supplies:

A selection of cards (old or new),
A ruler,
A pencil,
Eraser,
A pair of scissors or a paper trimmer
And some paper glue.

How to fold and score an old cards to make gift boxes:

1. Take your card and cut it in half along the center fold.

2. To make the lid of your box use a ruler to draw diagonal lines from the corners to form an 'X' in the middle of your card.

3. Folds the sides in to meet in the middle marked by the 'X'. You may need to use a bone folder or the edge of your ruler to help get a nice crisp fold.

4. Open your card back out and rotate 90 degrees. Repeat and fold both sides in to the center again.

5. Open your card back out. You should now have 4 creases running along the edges of your card.

6. Rub out any pencil marks. To make the sides of your box cut where the 2 creases intersect. Do this for all 4 corners.

7. Cut notches into the inside of each tab. This will help the sides of your box sit neatly together.

8. Put some double sided tape or glue on the back of each tab and stick your box together. You want to glue the smaller tabs on the inside.

9. Repeat the steps above to make the base of your box. You need to make the base smaller then the lid. There are 2 ways to do this.

The first way is to trim 2 mm of each side of your card and repeat the steps above. The base of your box will be slightly smaller and the lid should fit on easily. The only problem with this is the lid and the base of your box will sit flush and can be a little tricky to open.

The second way (and the way I made mine) is to repeat the steps above but when folding the sides in fold them 2/3 mm past the 'X' in the center. This will make the bottom of the box smaller and the sides of your box marginally taller so that there's a small lip at the bottom of your box to hold as you open and close it.

If you're using a rectangular card the process is exactly the same except the 2 shorter sides will be slightly taller than the longer sides. You can either trim away any excess or fold it over the top and glue it down.

Want more gift box templates? Get your hands on the Gift Box Template Bundle and you’ll be making your own gift boxes in minutes.

These boxes are a great thing to keep in stock for any gift giving emergencies. You could even pre-cut and fold your boxes and store them flat until needed.

What do you think? Have you ever made gift boxes out of recycled old greetings cards? I know it's something I'll be doing again in the future.