Make a Holiday Gift Box and "Bow" for Cheap

This instructable shows you how to make a unique flower bow and a customized origami box perfect for jewelry, candy, money, or any other small gift.  This project uses many common items you would have in your home, and I would estimate the total cost of materials used to be around $0.80.  The flower bow and origami box do not have to be used together.  The flower bow could be an ornament, headband (substitute non-fray fabric for paper), etc.  The origami box can be used as storage for small office items or decorated in some other fashion as a gift box.  The techniques are quite simple, but you must have a gentle firm hand when working with these materials.  Putting together this instructable and developing this technique took me about 4 hours.  I would imagine the first time working through these steps would take about 45 minutes, but subsequent boxes would take much less time and could be done assembly line style for an even quicker process for making multiple boxes.  You don't have to use the colors or paper that I did, so you can make yellow sunflowers with green wrapping paper for a spring-themed gift box.

 

Step 1 Materials

You will need the following:

• Paper trimmer (or ruler)
• Spray Adhesive
• 2"+ circle punch
• Posterboard (mine is red on one side and blue on the other)
• Green and Green Paper (I used construction paper)
• Black Bead
• Thin ribbon
• Wrapping Paper
• Aluminum foil
• Scissors
• Bone folder/corner turner (or a straight edge)
• Hammer
• Hole Punch
• Self-healing mat (or a piece of flat wood)

Comments

[blackkittyatl]

 i made one with brown floral craft paper to go for a kind of vintage look and used a bow instead of a flower, your instructions were really good! i think im going to make a second one for the hell of it but with blue wrapping paper instead, they look so cute and professional! i love the neatness too n_n' Great instructable! and thanks for not lacking on pictures, lol

[AngryRedhead]

That sounds adorable!  And thanks!  I'm glad it was helpful and that my prodigious photo taking was appreciated!  ; )

 

[Mehehehful]

I would feel bad tearing that apart to get to the gift inside... but I'd do it anyways n_n

[AngryRedhead]

Oh!  But the joy is you don't have to tear it apart!  All you have to do is undo the bow tie and pull on the strings to slip the lower box from the upper box!  Huzzah!  You can keep a pretty box and bow!  That's the importance of Step 17...  ya, there are a lot of steps but it gives a sense of accomplishment, right?

 

[Mehehehful]

Indeedy. Sorry I have the reading ability of a 6 year old maybe 7 +D Huzzah! = epic word use n_n

[ChrysN]

Nice, I especially like the flower!

[AngryRedhead]

Thanks!