Explosion Box is a Unique Holiday Gift to Make Your Best Friend

A great gift to give your best friend this holiday is to make her/him an explosion box. Explosion boxes have been around for several years. They are easy to make even though they look difficult. Explosion boxes make great gifts because you can personalize them coupled with the fact that you hand made the gift it will be cherished for years to come. They also make great gift boxes for those small gifts you might be giving out this year like jewelry, gift cards, candy, etc.

There are several different ways you can make an explosion box but the simplest way is shown below in this tutorial. You could make a dozen of these boxes in no time at all.

Supplies Needed:
1 piece of cardstock - cut to 7 ½" x 7 ½"
1 piece of patterned paper - cut to one 4 ½" x 4 ½" piece and four 2 ¼" x 2 ¼" pieces
Personal Paper Cutter with cutting blade and scoring blade
Scissors
Adhesive
Stamps & ink pads, stickers and other embellishments

Instructions:

Starting with the piece of cardstock cut to 7 ½" x 7 ½". Using your personal paper cutter and scoring blade, score the cardstock at 2 ½" and 5". Then rotate the cardstock once and score again at 2 ½" and 5".

Next turn the cardstock to look like a diamond. Line up the top and bottom points with your scoring blade on your cutter system. From the center box that is scored on your paper to the top and bottom points, score the paper. Make sure you do not score down the middle of the box. Turn the paper and do the same with the other two points. When you have finished you should have score marks that make up 9 perfect squares. You will have three squares across the top, three across the middle and three across the bottom. The 4 squares that make up the four corners should all have scores going diagonal through their middles towards the outer point of the box.

Now fold all the scored lines inward. The sides should all fold up into a box shape. Lay all the sides flat and then take the four squares of patterned paper that you cut earlier into 2 ¼" x 2 ¼" squares. Put adhesive on the backs of all four squares and paste them to the four squares around the middle square on the cardstock.

In the middle square of the cardstock, you can stamp a greeting such as "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Birthday." Or you could print a special poem or saying on a piece of cardstock and paste it in the middle square. Next decorate the four surrounding squares with stickers or other embellishments. You could also decorate them with special sayings printed on cardstock and paste to the center of the patterned squares.

Some ideas for special sayings may be things you want your best friend to always remember or things about her/him that make him special to you. I also like to put things in there like special words or inside jokes that only we would know. Like if you and your best friend went on a trip together, write where you went in one of the boxes i.e. Bahamas.

The lid is really easy to do. Take the 4"x4" piece of patterned paper and score all four sides at ¾" in. With the patterned side down, fold all the score lines up. Cut two slits on the left and right sides of the paper along the score lines. Fold the tabs in and place adhesive on the patterned side of the tabs. Then fold the sides together to make the lid. The tabs should adhere to the underside of the patterned paper. Fold the sides up on the cardstock box and carefully place the lid on top. Decorate the top and sides of the box if you wish.