Pillow Box tutorial by Jane Johnson

Hi, I'm Jane, one of the guest designers for Whiff of Joy. Today I'm going to show you how to make a pillow box. These are perfect for little presents like jewellery, silk scarves, ties and the like. Once you've got the hang of making them it is also very easy to adjust the sizes to make larger ones for DVD's and CD's or whatever.

You will need:

cardstock cut to 9 1/2" x 6 1/2"
design paper cut to 4 1/4" x 6"
craft knife
scissors
bone folder/scorer
glue
pencil
compass

Take your cardstock and score 1/2" in from one long edge, parallel with that edge. Then score 3" in from the opposite long edge, parallel with that edge. Next draw a line 2" in from each short edge. Your cardstock should then look like the photo above. Make sure you do all of the drawing on the wrong side of your cardstock so that it is inside the box when you have finished.

You will see that you have now marked out two rectangles. Measure 2" in from each side of the rectangles and 1 1/2" down and mark with a pencil. This is to give you a compass point for the next step. (don't worry it will become clearer in the next steps)

With your compass on the point you marked draw part of a circle from one corner of the short side of the rectangle to the other as in the picture above. Repeat on the other short sides of each rectangle, so you will do 4 in all.

Your card should then look like the picture above.

Now, you need your compass point at the edge of the card and draw part of a circle from the same points on all four short sides but this time going into the rectangles so that you have drawn 4 elipse shapes as you can see in the picture above.

Cut away the edges so that you are left with the shape above.

Next, take your scorer and score over the part circles you drew inside the rectangles as shown above.

Now you can glue your design paper panel to the right side of you cardstock. You can see I have punched the long edge of my paper with a decorative punch. If you are going to do this remember to cut your original paper size larger to allow for the amount you will remove with the punch!

Using a bone folder fold the middle crease as shown.

Fold the tab using the bone folder and glue underneath like so.

Allow the glue to dry for a few minutes and then gently squeeze the sides so that you can fold the curved end flaps in like so.

Using a flower punch create a cut out in the centre of the flap that will be on the inside to make it easier for the recipient to open.

Your box will look like the above picture at each end. The box is easilly opened again to put your gift inside and can also be opened at each end so that it will lay flat if you want to make them and store until ready to use.

Collect together items you wish to decorate your pillow box with. I have chosen some coordinating ribbon, a charm (available from the Whiff of Joy webshop) and some string.