Tetra Pak Wallet

A simple slim wallet made from 1L Tetrapak carton commonly used for milk products - the only things you'll need are scissors or a craft knife, a hard edged object to crease edges with and a 1L Tetrapak carton that suits your design fancy. This wallet requires no glue, adhesives or tape.

It should take about 3 minutes to make an extremely practical, durable and waterproof wallet that looks better as it gets older!

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Step 1: Choosing your design

Rinse well and dry the Tetrapak carton before starting to ensure no residue remains in the carton.
Open the top of the carton fully.

The most important step is organising how the wallet will look when finished and this is the first decision to make.

You will need to choose what face of the carton will be on the outside of the wallet and which will be on the inside. With the carton standing upright choose a surface that will be the outside (the one that everyone will see and comment on), the inside face of the wallet will be the surface directly to the right of the wallet's outside face [see picture]. The other two faces will not be seen, but will be used for folding and will make the wallet more durable.

xenobiologista says: Nov 28, 2010. 12:03 AM

For most applications where you use a hard object to flatten down a crease or fold, it's usually better to use the back of a metal spoon rather than a steel ruler, as these rulers have square, sharpish edges that can scratch your material and make it look less nice.

stuffedbears in reply to xenobiologistaJan 21, 2011. 1:47 AM

thanks for the tip!
i almost used my ruler :P

noahh says: Jan 19, 2011. 8:24 PM

Oops, I may have just added you to the group "Steampunk". :P I like it, though.

scraptopower says: Jul 3, 2010. 10:03 AM

This is cool, I'm going to try it sometime.

xenobiologista in reply to scraptopowerNov 28, 2010. 12:08 AM

Me too, have had problems finding nice flat wallets. Ladies' wallets tend to be enormous as they assume that one will be carrying them around in a handbag.

tsod says: Jun 29, 2010. 4:37 AM

very nice! but unfortunately its too small for european notes. btw very nice instructions. thx.

jamieicecream (author) in reply to tsodJun 29, 2010. 2:38 PM

I have also found this whilst travelling over the world. the 1L carton is good for US notes and but bad for the UK pound and possibly the euro. So ill post an alternative made out ofa 2L juice carton. ill put a link into the variations section

techshop1 says: Mar 7, 2010. 8:25 PM

That is soooo cool.

mt_expat says: Sep 28, 2009. 11:40 AM

I collage my Tetra-pak coin purses with stuff from magazines/newspapers/comic books and then cover them in packing tape, sometimes finished off with electrical or hockey stick tape for cleaner edges. I like that your design doesn't require any closure, though!