Exploding Box Valentine Card

I made this pretty exploding box Valentine card using a square milk carton for the basic box and some gorgeous vintage style wrapping paper. Total cost 50 cents!

Approximate Time: 1-2 hours including drying time for the glue

Supplies:

square milk or juice carton
craft glue, or glue gun
construction paper or thin card
wrapping paper
scissors

Instructions:

Wash and dry out a milk or juice carton carefully. It may be easier to cut the top couple of inches off to do this and to make the rest of the cutting less fiddly.

About 4 inches from the bottom of the carton use you ruler to mark a line all the way around the carton. Cut this off keeping carton all in one piece, this will be your box.

Then mark and cut another piece, 3/4 of an inch wide in the same way from what is left, this will be the frame for the lid of the box.

Now cut from the top to the base of the box in each corner and flatten it out. It will be a cross shape. Use this to cut a template from an old cereal packet or construction card and then use that to cut 2 pieces of wrapping paper in the cross shape of the box.
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Use thinly spread craft glue to stick one of the pieces of paper to each side of the carton cross and put it aside to dry. Return to the template and use it as a guide to cut two crosses from the construction card, one of these should be smaller than the other as in the picture. These will form the layers inside to box, but as they will be hidden by paper they do not need to be precise.

Using the photos as a guide use designs cut from the wrapping paper to decorate the first card cross then stick it to the centre of the carton cross. Once this is completely dry, repeat the process with the smaller card cross.

To finish off the centre use designs cut from the paper glued to a small piece of card and fix this to the centre of the smallest card cross.

To make the lid for the box cut a square of wrapping paper about 1/2 inch larger all around than the piece cut from the carton. Fold up and stick down the paper as if you were wrapping a parcel. This will form the lid. Cut a strip of wrapping paper about 1/2 inch wide and then stick this all the way around the lid to make it look tidy. The decoration on the box lid is made using the same method as the centre of the inside of the box.