How to Make a Square Paper Box by Hand

In the heat of the Coronavirus epidemic outbreak in China, one factory guy shared making a square paper box by hand to kill time. It can be used to hold some desk trashes like nutshells, or other little things. Listed hereinafter are the steps:

1. Get a square paper, preferably repurposed from used items. What’s used here for demonstration is a piece of T=0.18mm brown kraft paper (22*22cm) , retrieved from a used paper handbag.

The thicker the paper is, the more rigid the box will be. But thicker paper make it more difficult to fold. You can find a trade-off here.

2. Fold the paper in half twice, to form two perpendicular creases as shown in the photo.

3. Fold the four corners inward along the creases and make them meet at the center of the paper.

4. Further fold to align the edge with the centerline. Repeat it at the opposite edge.

5. Repeat the folding for the other two edges. You’ll see the hash-shaped creases.

6. Unfold the paper and leave it flat as shown in the picture.

7. Now come to the most critical step, to form the joints at the four corners for the would-be box. Note the 4 squares, highlighted in red in the above picture. Raise the two sides and fold the said squares inward along the diagonal, as demonstrated below.

8. Fold the two flat flaps inward to form the other two sides.

Done!

The square box measures 7.8x7.8x4cm(H).

If you want a lid for the box, get a paper that’s about 5mm larger and the repeat the above procedures!
And if you’d like a small gift box and wanna add some artistic touch, just decorate it however you like.

Hope you’ll enjoy it!