Ideal for ages 6-12
You will need:
Construction paper (your choice of color)
Glue
Scissors
Optional:
Crayons, markers and/or colored pencils to decorate the outside of the box.
Glitter
Stickers
I always fold the edges first. To do this you are going to want to fold each side making a crease. You want to unfold each side before folding the next side. Keeping the distance from the crease to the edge of the paper the same all the way around. The larger the distance from the edge to the crease, the higher the sides of your box will be.
Next you will need to cut a diagonal line inwards from the corners of the paper to the creases. This will make two triangles once the sides are folded up and allow the paper to form the box. In the picture to the left I have drawn red lines to show about where the paper will be folded and creased and black lines to show you where to cut.Next turn the paper over and decorate the sides. Keep in mind that it is very hard to decorate after the box has been assembled, so you are going to want to decorate it before assembling the box. In the picture I have highlighted the area that will be the sides in yellow. If you use glitter or glue anything onto the box I recommend allowing it to dry over night before assembling the box.
Once you have decorated the outside of the box, turn the paper over and fold the sides up with one of the triangles on the inside of the box and one on the out side. Glue the inside triangle to the box. Do NOT glue the outside triangles. Once that is done your box should look like this. ---->After the glue dries go ahead and trim the extra triangles. If you are concerned about stability, tape the corners with a piece of Scotch Tape. You can also reinforce the sides by cutting a piece of thin cardboard and gluing it to the inside of your box.
To make the lid again fold and crease the paper but this time make the distance from the creases to the edge slightly, but not too much, smaller. This will allow the lid to fit comfortably over your box. Cut the paper from the corner to the crease as you did before. After you get done with you are going to want to trim the edges to make the lids sides not as long as the box. I recommend trimming all but about an inch off. Make sure you do not trim it down below a half an inch.
Turn the paper over and decorate the top of your box allowing ample time to dry before assembling as you did the main part of the box.
