Make your own paper boxes

When I was my daughter's age, my mom used to make these pretty little paper boxes out of wrapping paper.  I can picture her sitting at the counter folding and cutting what looked like a puzzle.  She was the magician who could create this darling little package out of a flat piece of paper that housed the treasures at the end of our treasure hunts.  I loved those treasure hunts:  go out the front door, down 5 steps, turn to the left, take 20 steps, turn to the right and take 5 more steps...then we'd find the next clue tucked in the lilac bush.

I brought up the paper boxes with my mom last week and it must have rattled her memory a bit as well, because a few days later she sat at her dining room table with my daughter and taught her how to make the paper boxes I hadn't seen since my childhood.  Want to learn?  Take a square piece of paper.  I used 8.5" x 8.5" scrapbook paper, but wrapping paper really works the best for sharp folds.  Take your piece of paper and fold it in half (like the bright multi-colored box paper below), fold it in half again (like the blue/green/white stripe) and fold it in half again (like the yellow).  Open the paper and fold it in half the opposite direction- same number of folds.

Unfold your paper.  You should have 8 vertical rows and 8 horizontal rows like a little box grid.

Grab a pair of scissors and cut along the dotted lines according to the paper box template I made below:

Now bring two opposite sides together (the folds of the paper will guide you how it comes together).  The two loose tabs on each side will fold in.  Tuck the triangle with the two cuts on the outside corners into the middle slot below the opposite triangle.  Be careful so you don't tear the slot all the way across.  If it tears, you can use tape to close the paper box, but tucking one triangle through the slot holds the box together without any tape.

Then fold the other two opposite sides and tuck the triangle through the slot.

Here it is step-by-step:

Pretty little treat boxes you can whip up in just a few minutes.

Now go create a treasure hunt for your kids.  They'll remember it for a lifetime.