Preparations for making a box yourself:

You need:

Two paper squares if you want to make a box bottom and a top. The bottom square should be slightly smaller than the top, so they will fit inside each other. For a 12 x 12 inch paper, cut off half an inch off one side of the paper and the top (or bottom). The remainder should be a paper square of 11,5 x 11,5 inches.

Step one:

The side of the paper that should be the inside of your box must be on the inside now too, but I will show you later what I mean. Fold the paper first in the following order:

Fold both sides in half, then fold the corners together:

The result should look like this:

This is the back side of my paper which will end up being in the inside of the box 🙂

The inside must be facing you from now on.

2) Continue folding the box:

Now, fold the corners to the center of the square until it looks like this:

Leave the paper folded and continue folding up as shown in the next picture, but only fold up this one side to the center of the paper and it’s opposite side:

Fold one side up and then it’s opposite side just like this:

Now, open the paper and turn it around until you see this:

Open up your latest folds and lay the paper in front of you like this.

Fold the sides that are facing you now towards the center of the paper:

Can you see that these folds already make up the sides of your box?

Step two: Finish the box

Now, turn the almost finished box towards you and fold one side up like this:

Let me show you again on the other side:

Can you see how the folds are made? Now fold in the triangle and your box is finished:

And here are some more that my kids and I made. The kids made prints on the papers and after they have dried made boxes from them. The little yellow one will be used as a box for secret santa in school 🙂

Are you going to try these instructions? If anything is unclear, let me know!