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)

Step 2: Punch Circles

Punch 2 red circles and 1 green circle.

Step 3: Spray Glue Circles

Spray glue circles and smoothed out aluminum foil ready.

Tip:  When spray gluing, run the glue over the edges of the material you're coating.

Step 4: Afix Circle to Foil

Carefully lay a circle down on the aluminum foil.  The circles will want to move, so just be as careful as you can when pressing.

Repeat for all 3 circles.

Step 5: Cut the Excess

Cut the excess aluminum foil away from the attached circle.

Repeat for all three circles.

Step 6: Make Folds As Guides

Make folds for your guides.

Fold circle in half.

Connect the folded lines and fold again.

Repeat as demonstrated in the photos until the circle is folded into 8 segments.

Repeated for both red circles.  You only need to fold the green circle twice for a total of 4 segments.

Step 7: Cut Petals

Cut the petals out from the red circles.  I eyed it and left  them connected to a 1/2" inner circle.  Be careful to not cut away the petals or leave too little attached.

Step 8: Cut Leaves

Cut the green circle like you did for the 2 red circles except only make 4 large "leaves".

Step 9: Punch Center Holes

Using your hole punch, punch holes from the center of the 2 red and 1 green.

Step 10: Ribbon and Bead

Run one end of the ribbon through all three holes with the green on the bottom and both reds on top.  Run the ribbon through a black bead and back through the holes.

Step 11: Cut Posterboard Squares

Cut 2 squares out of the poster board.  One square will have to be 3/4" to 1" larger than the other depending on the wrapping paper you are using.  Thin wrapping paper will probably only need 3/4" difference, but heavy wrapping paper will probably need 1".  My squares are 6" and 6 3/4".

Step 12: Make Fold Lines and Test

Fold origami box as illustrated in the photos for both posterboard squares and run a dry test run to make sure the boxes fit snuggly inside one another without needing to force them together.  Make crisp edges using a bone folder/edge turner (or a straight edge).

Step 13: Unfold and Spray Glue

Unfold your boxes and apply spray glue to the side you want to hide.

Step 14: Attach to Wrapping Paper

Gently press the squares onto a length of rolled out wrapping paper keeping the edges in line with any pattern the paper might have.

Note:  The circle punch is just being used to keep the edge from rolling back up.

Step 15: Loosely Cut and Smooth

Loosely cut the boxes out and flip them over.  Gently smooth out any bubbles or creases using your fingers or a straight edge.

Step 16: Cut Excess Wrapping Paper

Cut off the excess wrapping paper from both squares and refold both boxes.

Step 17: Attach Ribbon and Flower Bow

Wrap the ribbon around the top portion of the box and twist underneath.  Carefully slide the lower box inside the upper box keeping the ribbon tawt.  Flip upside down and tie a bow underneath.  Readjust the petals and leaves if necessary.

Note:  Tying the box in this way makes it easy for the gift recipient to pull the box open.