Angie and Sandras Box, framed card/book to fit inside

We're on the final leg now and I can recharge the poor batteries in my camera.

For each page you'll need a sheet of paper the same size as the paper you used for your box, a photo or piece of card 7.5cms sqr for 6*6 papers, 10cms sqr for 8*8 paper as well as 1 less piece if card 5cms sqr or 7cms square for the hinges. I made 6 pages so only needed 5 hinges. If each page is going to be heavily embellished or you use a thick paper 6 would be the maximum pages that would fit the smaller box. Thin paper with photos and rubdowns you would probably get about 10 pages and you can fit more pages if using 8*8 papers.


Start off by bringing the sides into the middle and folding, unfold, turn and repeat. If you have difficulty finding the centre line you can fold the paper in half first either across or diagonally but this will leave you with extra creases showing on the finished frame. I havent worried about it for the step by step but if I was making this as an extra special gift I would probably measure and score the lines with an embossing tool. Ignore all the extra creases on the pic, I'd forgot to photo it so had to go back in at the end, oops.

With the right side showing fold the corner into the middle, repeat for all 4 corners before opening out.

Turn the paper over and fold the corners to the diagonal crease line. Do not open back out.

This is the part of origami I call squidging ;o) Very carefully pinch the sides of one corner into each other while making sure that tiny folded over corner stays flat.

As the corner comes into itself you'll get a triangle popping up. Keeping a finger or thumb holding the base down use your other hand to push it flat.

Use the bone folder to make sure the edges are nice and crisp.

Once the 4 corners are done you'll have a shape like these. They will want to keep popping up but don't worry.

Very carefully slid the four corners of your photo/card into the four corner pockets. If you're using a very thick card it's a good idea to have shaved off 1mm of 2 sides of the card. I didn't bother even though I was using 300gsm ribbled card. You might find the page is now bowing, I like to turn them over and use the side of the bone folder to gently iron them flat.

Your page should now look like this and you can either decorate or skip straight to joining 2 pages together with a hinge.

Take the hinge square and fold in half diagonally, open out and fold back the other way along the same fold line. This is so the pages will fold in both directions.

Add a small strip of dst just along the side of the crease and carefull place in the side gap of one of your pages. Once the side of the page is next to the crease of the hinge squeeze so the dst sticks in the right place.

Add dst to the other side of the crease on the hinge and insert into the gap of the next page. Not sure if you can see the detail or not but the page on the right has creases across the corner. This is what happens if you found the middle of the paper by folding the paper diagonally. The page on the left has no crease because I found the middle by folding length wise.

I made 6 pages for my card and carefully inserted a piece of ribbon to the inside gaps at the back of the final page. It isnt essential but I wanted to secure the book and give something to help ease it from the box.

Finished but undecorated book/card inside the box.

Now if you don't want to make a box to hold you're book in you don't have to and you don't even have to use these pages in the same way as I have. By making 6 pages and 6 hinges you can turn the pages into sides of a cube simply by adding the hinges on all of the sides.

Huge thanks to Angie and Sandra for the day & demo. I know they'd love to see any of the boxes or books you make using this tutorial, so please leave a link. You're also more than welcome to shout if I've confused things with the step by step.

hugs

Angie and Sandras Box, base

If I'm taking photos that my fat fingers are going to be in I would normally take the time to make sure my nails were nice and clean, possibly with a bit of polish but I promised Kay I'd do the pictures complete with grubby nails and ink stains. The ink's worn off Kay but the nails are pretty bad ;o)

Anyway enough of that here's the step by step for the box. BTW the papers used are from a pretty old Branda Walton, K&Copad, Dolls House and trimmed down to 6*6.


Again remember your pattern match.

Step 1 fold the paper in half lengthways as you would to make a regular card, open out turn and repeat so you have a nice cross fold line.

Step 2 Bring the sides in to meet the middle as you would for a gatefold card, fold and open.
Step 3 You have a choice now of easy or tricky. Easy is folding the paper diagonally bottom left to top right corner and unfolding. I've shown the trickier version, fold diagonally but only crease from the bottom to the mid point before unfolding.

Step 4 Bring the bottom left corner to the middle and fold. This corner does not have a crease on the diagonal. Do not open back out.

Step 4 Bring the top 1/4 down to the middle and fold. The score line will already be there.

Hold the top fold and the diagonal fold with your left hand and with your right gently pull the bottom right corner down and underneath towards the left.

You will now have a completed corner.

Once you have the 4 corners made again carefully tuck one inside the other but only by a small amount and gently turn the box upside down

If you can see any points you need to tuck these to the inside.

Once all the points are tucked in gently pat each of the corners into each other until you have a tight fit.

Flip the box over and gently ease down the triangular flaps.

The box is finished now bar any decoration you want to add.

My next post will be making the framey card which will fit inside. I havent started it yet so it won't be until this evening. If you're in a rush there is a very basic step by step in my gallery at docrafts.

Angie and Sandras Box, lid

Ooops, I've been a really really bad blogger lately. No excuses other than I've been so busy designing svgs for the cricut and scal then opening my new webshop.

I had an absolute ball yesterday meeting up with a load of my docraft buddies after Sandra graciously offered to host the day. Cheers Sandra.

Angie decided to demo a modular origami box and was supposed to be assisted by Sandra wearing her sparkly tights... no sparkly tights but she did assist most beautifully by keeping the kettle piping hot ;o)

Before I left I did promise to put Angies instructions into a step by step pdf, not sure if it's the pdf programme I use or the sheer volume of photos but the size was a bit hefty so I decided to use blogger instead.

This is the first of the step by steps, making the lid. Sorry it's further down the page but I'd already uploaded the pics before I thought of the viewing order.


You'll need to make the box.

4 sheets of 8*8 or 6*6 for the lid
4 sheets of the same size paper for the base.

Best not to use the really thin paper but really heavy or textured paper can be trickier to fold accurately.

framey card inside

up to 8 sheets of the same size paper, 1 sheet makes 1 page
1 piece of card per page cut to 7.5cms sqr if using a 6*6 paper, or 10cms sqr if using an 8*8
1 less than the total number of pages pieces of card cut to 5cms sqr if using 6*6 or 7cms square if using 8*8. These create the hinges.

After each fold use a bone folder or cocktail stick to sharpen the fold line. This will make for a neater box and help with the assembly.


Easier start

1 Fold the paper diagonally, open out, turn around and fold along the other diagonal.

2 Open out and fold one of the corners to meet the middle. Fold the paper diagonally so that the folded in corner gets tucked in and hidden. If using a patterned paper that has a directional pattern it's a good idea to fold all the papers in exactly the same place OR the exact opposite before moving on to the next stage.

Trickier start but keeps the sides and top crease free, not photoed.

1 Fold the paper diagonally, open out, turn around and fold along the other diagonal but only to the half way point. Again think of any pattern match.
2 Open out and fold one of the corners that has a crease line along the complete diagonal up to the middle. Fold the paper along the complete diagonal so that the corner is tucked in.

Turn the paper so that the folded in corner is on your left.

It doesnt matter now whether you do step 3 or step 4 next.

3 Carefully bring the right hand point over to the left hand corner and fold, unfold.

4 Fold the top down so that the right angled corner on the left meets the bottom of the folded in corner. Unfold.

5, last fold, bring the bottom point up and across so that it meets the bottom of the folded in corner and score only until you get to the 2nd crease if using the easier start OR the first crease if using the trickier start. Just in case that confuses anyone it's the crease line created in step 4.

Keep the fold in place and hold the point where you folded it to the tucked in corner with your left hand and gently pull the point on the right hand side down


Repeat for the remaining 3 pieces of paper.

To assemble gently tuck the pointed edge inside the straight edge of the next piece. Do not push them in all the way, just enough that the base starts to slip into the base of the next piece.

Once you have all 4 corners tucked inside each other gently flip the box over and gradually pat in each corner until they are fully tucked in.

Flip the box back over and gently ease down the inner folds. You will have a small hole in the centre, the thinner the paper and the more accurate the folding the smaller it will be.