How to Make Japanese Gift Boxes

You can use origami to make a small gift box.

The skilled paper folder can make just about anything from origami paper, be it elaborate flowers, detailed animals, or more abstract constructs. But even the novice origami artist can coax complex-looking shapes from paper with a little bit of instruction. An impressive, but easy, origami project is the gift box. Gift boxes add an individualized touch to the holidays. If you use decorative origami paper, you don't even need gift wrap.

Things You'll Need

• 1 square of origami paper
• 1 square of slightly larger origami paper

Instructions

1. Fold the paper in half. Unfold it and fold it in half again along the other axis.

2. Rotate the paper so it looks like a diamond. Take one corner and fold it to the center of the paper. Repeat with the other three corners.

3. Fold the top fourth of the resulting square into the middle. Repeat with the bottom fourth. Bend these back out again.

4. Fold the left-hand and right-hand fourths of the square to the middle. Unfold them.

5. Unfold the top and bottom corners.

6. Fold the two edges under the triangle formed by the topmost corner along the last crease. This fold is much like what happens when you fold the edges under while wrapping the ends of a present. Two of the sides of the piece should now be raised.

7. Fold the top leaf of the box in, over the crease aligned with the sides. Fold the tip of the corner into the center of the box.

8. Repeat the present-like fold on the lower corner of the paper and fold the tip of the corner in to the center. You now have one half of your box.

9. Create a second half by following the same steps with a slightly larger piece of paper. You now have the two halves of your box.

References

• Storm the Castle: How to Make an Origami Box (Video)
• Origami-Instructions.com: Easy Origami Box
• TinyShiny: Origami Box