Due to popular demand, I am doing a tutorial on the Magic Boxes I showed off in some previous posts.

To begin, choose your paper. You need six sheets of matching paper (preferably a heavier weight). Choose one for your outside, a contrasting one for your lid, and 4 to create the inside boxes. Cut as follows (all measurement are in inches):

Outside: 6 x 11 3/4ths
Lid: 8.5 x 8.5
4 inner boxes: 8 x 8

The only challenging part of this project is creating the lid and inside compartments. The good news is, they follow the exact same process.

1. Draw a line from corner to corner on the back side of your paper.

2. fold the tips of your paper in so that they meet at the center. It will look as though you are folding an envelope.
Fold in all four sides, and then unfold.

3. Fold the tips up to the folded line on each side. This fold gives you the sides of your box. Do it on all four sides. When you are finished you should have creases all the way around. I have taken a marker and drawn lines on my creases. This is not neccesary. This is to help you see where there should be folds. The first two lines you drew will NOT be creased.

4. I have also colored four triangles. Cut those out. You will be left with this:

5. See the arrows? Cut those lines up to the tip of the arrows. You should get this:

6. You have created two sets of tabs. Bring them together to form a wall of the box like so: Now fold the flap over those tabs. Do the same thing on the other side.

7. Your flaps won’t want to stay down on their own. Fold in the other two flaps and press the corners in firmly. Once all four corners are in, the box will stay together without any glue.

Repeat this process on your 8 inch and 8.5 inch papers. You should have 4 boxes and the lid.

Now for the outside.

1. Take the 11 3/4ths x 6 inch paper and fold it in half.
2. Open it up and fold the ends into the center. You should have four perfectly even quadrants.

To put the boxes in, first adhere one to the very top right corner, making certain that you are flush with the corner of the outside paper.

Adhere the next one to the bottom left corner, once again flush to the edge.

Align the inside two boxes so that they are in centered in their own quarter of the paper, but not overlapping each other so you can still fold the box shut.

Once the glue is dry (I do reccomend a liquid glue to extra staying power) you should be able to close your box and the lid should fit perfectly on top. One corner of the box will remain open, as no part is designed to overlap. To remedy this, I like to tie mine up with ribbons. You can embellish them any way that you like.

Here are a few that I’ve made.

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Hello! My, my, my, Lou is feeling a little scattered. Seriously. I have days (heh, weeks) where I could be perfectly happy never leaving my house. Now, I know I need to leave my house. There are errands to run, groceries to buy, people to please- and here I sit, totally unmotivated. I even canceled a dental appointment I had this morning because I don’t wanna move my butt.

This is probably because I spent all of last week running nonstop. I have found that I have one week out of every month where every thing that I need to do will be scheduled. The other three weeks I could spend sitting on my couch picking my nose, and the world wouldn’t care. Last week I had 2 dentist appointments, a school appointment, two kid appointments, visiting teaching, and then because I wasn’t pooped by Saturday, I went and taught four classes at the Nook. It was great, but I’m out of energy.

Tonight I’m teaching a scrap class for some people in Chris’ squadron. Do I have any idea what I’m doing yet? Um, not really. They weren’t overly specific about what they wanted and so I’m kind of making it up as I go along. I think it will be a card and a small project- focus on techniques, not pages. . .or something like that. Hopefully I have a few brain cells left tonight.

I went to a great church meeting on Sunday. I got there early to make sure that I would have a seat, and while I waited, I took all of the obligations swirling around in my head and I put them down in a list so I could focus enough to listen. It worked, but now I’m terrified of a seemingly innocuous piece of paper because looking at it will make me have to get up and do something.

I have no commitments tomorrow, but as soon as I look at that list I won’t have a minute’s peace. Thursday, on the other hand, is so packed that it requires a sitter, which I still need to find. Oddly enough, the following week is shaping up hectic as well, and it is forecasted to remain that way through February 16th! What gives? I thought I had no life.