Have you ever wondered how to make a tiny little box that you can put small items in, like office supplies? Well, now you can learn how by reading this instructable! I will teach you how to make an origami box out of two sheets of paper and two pieces of tape, (optional). You can also use one piece of paper to make a little container for stamps and other small things! This will save some money and space.

(1) finished box with bottom with nothing inside

(2-3) finished cover with office supplies inside

(4) finished box with bottom (decorated)

Note: the ordering of the steps is not right, so go to step 5 then step 1. I couldn't reorder it somehow just because there was some sort of exception... =U

Step 1: Making a Square Sheet Out of an 8 1/2 X 11 Inch Page

(1) just use a normal sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper; a blank one would be nice!

(2) next, take the top left corner of the page and fold it over onto the page just like the picture below

(3) make sure the corner is lined up directly with the edge of the page

(4) flip the page over (don't unfold the flap)

(5) fold the bottom flap, (the straight one), up so that it is like the picture(s) below

(6) you can flip the whole page over to check if the diagonal edges are perfectly lined up with the folded over flap; this is a very good idea if you terribly mess up!

(7) unfold everything so the page is laid out like the picture below

(8-9) to cut, or rip, the bottom flap off, you will have to keep folding the flap over and over again until it is weak enough to be torn off by hand

(10) if you don't want to risk the chance of ripping the page, you can use scissors! just cut along the straight line

(11) oops!

(12) this is your finished product!

Step 2: Making the Top, or Cover, of the Box

(1) fold the page in half; it doesn't matter which way you fold the page...

(2) take the top left corner of the first layer and fold it so the corner is touching the 'bottom center', you'll know what I'm talking about once you see the picture

(3) do the same thing with the right side of the first layer

(4) flip the page over, with the folds still folded

(5) now, do the same thing with the corners as you did earlier

(6) unfold the horizontal flap so the page is in a square shape

(7-8) take the edge of the paper and fold it so that it is touching the center of the page while the top and bottom edges are lined up with the page

(9) unfold the newly folded flap (still having that square shape)

(10-11) repeat the same process with the other edges

(12) this is what you should have now

Step 3: Making the Top, or Cover, of the Box Continued

(1) unfold the flaps on the left and right only

(2) fold the the top and bottom flaps down just like the picture below

(3) this is probably the hardest part! place your thumbs here and slowly push inwards

(4) you should have this now

(5) fold this like the picture below

(6) it'll be better if you place the 'box' like this

(7) fold the flap over like so

(8) continue folding it until it is like this

(9-11) repeat the same process on the other flap

(12-13) scotch tape is good to keep the flaps from popping back up so just use a small piece

(14) you could put almost any small office supply in here!

(15) thumbs up! =D your done with the top, or cover

(16) here's some other office supplies you could fit into the cover

Step 4: Making the Bottom, or Smaller Part, of the Box

this step is very similar to the last 3. although, you're going to have to make the square smaller when you make it! this may seem a little confusing, I'll show you how...

Note: get your 81/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper and make the normal square by following the first step again. in other words, just repeat the first step!

(1-4) take a ruler and make two marks, with a pen or pencil, on the same end of the paper, 1/2 a centimeter away from the edge. for example, you could make one mark at the bottom right corner and another mark at the top right corner. if you are still confused, because I was too when I looked at this from 3rd Grade, just look at the pictures, please. in the 1st picture, as you can see, the ruler has a 1/2 a centimeter mark on the page from the edge. the 2nd picture is just a better view of it. in the 3rd picture, I made a mark at the top right corner or the square. then, i turned the whole square 90o, (90 degrees), to the right. next, i made a mark at the bottom right corner, making sure i didn't go over the other dot. I didn't want to make the same mark on the top right corner because this way I can just keep the ruler on the right side of the square!

(5-6) then, I just made another set of marks at the top right corner of the square and then connected them like the picture below...

(7) here's a pic when I had two full lines done

Note: as you can see, in (7), where the corner meets at the bottom right corner, the crease is going through there, kind of making a new corner!

(8) here's the finished square with all the lines

(9) then, just cut along the lines you drew!

(10) here's the finished square =D

Step 5: Materials

You will need the following materials to make a full box, top and bottom:

(1) 2 sheets of 81/2 x 11 inch paper

(2) scissors (in the instructable, I used 2 different pairs of scissors, but you can just use 1 kind...)

(3) a normal ruler

(4) a pen or pencil (I used a blue pen)

(5) a flat surface (as shown on all pictures)

and most importantly:

(6) a good sense in following directions cause' this is gonna be sort of confusing! =O (this isn't shown in the pictures, but I'm assuming you already have one! ) =D

Now, let's get started!

Step 6: Making the Bottom, or Smaller Part, of the Box Continued

the next part is pretty self-explanatory since you just have to repeat steps 2-3, but with the new square! I just took pictures at random times when I was making this part of the box

(1) fold it in half

(2) do the 4 corners to the middle thing

(3) fold the edges to the middle

(4) unfold the left and right edges and fold in the top and bottom edges

(5-6) fold the shape into a box shape

(7) put a piece of tape to secure it

Note: if you're going to decorate the box cover, go to the next step then put the tape once you're done with the WHOLE box!

Step 7: Optional: Decorate It! =D

you can decorate it as you like, as long as the cover still goes on perfectly! in these pictures I just lightly wrote on the top with the pen I used earlier...

Note: if you somehow forget to put on the tape, here's your chance to write on the top as much as you like! just unfold the box shape until it is like the 4th picture on the previous step. just flip it over and write as much as you like on the middle square shape. this section will become the top of the cover once it is folded into the cover box!

(1) I forgot to decorate it before I put the tape on...

Note: decorating only the cover is pretty good, but you could decorate everything and that would be MUCH better!

(2) thumbs up to a great box!

(3) just a greeting to all the Instructables fans out there! =D

(4) Happy New Year Instuructables! see you guys on my next project! =D