See You Soon Advent Calendar

One of my best friends asked me to make him small containers/packages, or custom envelopes so he could send his boyfriend little care packages with notes, photos, and perhaps teeny-tiny gifts. They are on opposites coasts at the moment and both are taking care of elderly parents during the shelter in place order. Obviously they feel disconnected and of course I thought I'd do what I could to help.

I tried to keep it simple so he could make the next batch (not holding my breath though, he is terrible at making things, its sad, but true). I tried a few ideas before settling on a weekly heart-shaped advent calendar kind of thing.

I made a set of nine heart-shaped boxes. One for every day of the week and two bonus boxes for the really tough days. The heart boxes are then packed in a prefab hinged cardboard box that I bought a bunch of, for some reason.

So Matt, I hope you like the little boxes I made for you. I left them on your porch so you could fill them. I look forward to the panic video call at 2 am asking for help on how to glue them shut :)

NOTE: I am not filling the boxes. I glued one as a demo, the rest are closed with a couple of glue dots allowing my buddy to add the goodies later.

Supplies

Cardstock

Cricut cutter (or craft knife and ruler)

Glue

Random box to pack them in

Step 1: Prep Template

• Download and transfer the template to your plotting/cutting software
  • You an use the JPG file in the above images or the PDF file below
    
    • You could also just print it on any cardstock
    • When you fold it into shape, just keep the printed side on the inside of the box to hide the print
• Cut or print at what ever size you need

Step 2:

• Use your cutter to cut out the box or use a craft knife and a ruler to cut it
  • I used a Cricut Air to make a bunch
• I cut out a bunch and added number on the tag. The numbers are the order in which to open the boxes.
  • 2 were not numbered as they are for "I miss you" Emergencies

Step 3: Fold

• Fold along all of the dashed lines

Step 4: Glue the Base

• Add a little glue to the small tab at the bottom of the heart
• Secure the tab to the strip attached at the other side of the heart
• Hold in place for a few seconds

Step 5: Glue Long Tab

• Add a bit of glue to the long tab on the side of the other heart
• Secure to the long rectangular strip
  • This will leave the two heart shapes parallel to each other

Step 6: Glue Left Top

• Start glueing the short half of the top in place
• Glue one section at a time
  • Add a little glue to the 2 tabs closets to the heart shape
  • Glue the tab to the inside of the heart
  • Hold in place for a few seconds as the glue dried a bit

Step 7: Add the Goodies

• This is a good time to add larger contents of the box

Step 8: Glue to Top

• Glue the same way as the other side until you reach the long tab

• I did not glue the last two sections,I just applied small glue dots to allow the box to be filled later while still keeping it's shape

Step 9: Secure the Tab?

I like the long tab, however if you'd like, you can glue it down.

Add a little glue to back side of it and gently press it into place.

Step 10: Flatten the Tab?

If you do not want the pull tab sticking up, you can add a crease and glue it flat onto the heart top.

Step 11: Pack It Up

Either hand them out one by one or pack them in a box to give them out.