How to Make a Small Gift Box Out of an Old Greeting Card

Make additional use out of all those holiday and special occasion greeting cards by making small gift boxes out of them. This is a creative way to recycle old greeting cards instead of just tossing them away. This is also a way to wrap something without using additional wrapping paper to put around the box. The greeting card is both the wrapping paper and the box. These small handmade boxes are charming and add an individual touch to gift giving.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Old greeting card
• Scissors
• White craft glue
• Ruler or straight edge
• Pencil
• Blunt edge like a butter knife
• Paper clips (if necessary)

1. Cut the greeting card in half at the fold line so the front and back halves are now separate pieces. The front half will be the top of the box. The back half will be the bottom of the box.

2. Draw cutting lines using the straight edge. Cut a piece of the front half of the card 3 7/8-inches wide by 5-inches long. Do the same for the bottom piece but they will be 1/8-inch narrower and 1/8-inch shorter, 3 ¾-inches wide by 4 7/8-inches wide. The top has to be slightly larger than the bottom so the top of the box will slide over the bottom of the box.

3. Measure a section ¾-inch from the outside edge of the card in. Draw or score a straight line from top to bottom on the right and left sides of the front piece at the ¾-inch mark. Score and fold the two lines. Do the same on the top and bottom measuring ¾-inch lines then folding and scoring. Do the same for the back half of the card.

4. Fold all the folds in, the top folds over the side folds then the sides over the folded down top and bottom. Open them all up again. There will be a small square folding mark on all 4 corners. Cut the inner edge of one of the squares just down to the ¾-inch fold mark. Only cut the vertical side of the small corner square not the horizontal, only one side or else the square corner will be cut off.

5. Fold the edges up and tuck the four folded and cut small square corners inside the longer pieces. Then glue them in place. If the corners don’t stay in place while they are drying, use paper clips to hold them while they dry. Then remove them after they are dry. Repeat the process for the back half. Let the glue dry. Now the top and bottom of the box is complete and it can be put together.

[janinemargaret]

on 12/5/2009 Thanks for the article, I'll definitely try this using my old cards.

[jlhaley]

on 12/31/2008 Making boxes this way is really simple. Question... How do you hide the signature?

[suziescrapper]

on 12/30/2008 Once I saw the pic I was able to do it just fine. All this step 1-blah, blah, blah is too hard for me. Ha! I love this and will be using it a whole bunch. Thanks for the post.

[pgardapee]

on 11/30/2008 This sounds interesting. It might be my next project.