Hello crafters, it’s Terri back on the blog today with a tutorial for a fun, super cute and also pretty “wow” make. Now, most people don’t typically think of creepy crawlies and insects as being cute right? However, the amazing Kate Hadfield has managed to bring out their inner cuteness in her unique style of illustrations.

I absolutely loved colouring up some of these little cuties in digital stamp form and showcasing them in a rather fancy type of card. This box type of card, which folds flat for posting/gifting, but pops up into a box once removed from the envelope is very popular and has been around for years. They look really impressive and are definitely a “mantel pleaser” but many card makers may be put off from making such a card, as we think it is too hard. Well I’m here to tell you that its not! Today’s tutorial will give you a complete walk through of how I made this little cutie, including all of the measurements required. With a little creative thinking you can also adjust the measurements to make smaller or larger versions too.

Firstly, you want to choose your colour scheme. Now obviously these little critters have traditional colours, but as crafters we don’t really care about that and can make them any colour we want! So think about your colouring medium and gather your pens/coloured pencils/pre coloured stamped images etc. Then find 2 pieces of A4/US standard equivalent card stock at around 200-300gsm (construction weight, not too flimsy) and pick out some pretty paper or cardstock that will match the card for the base and work well with the colours of your critters. It’s always best to think of your colour scheme first as its much more difficult to find matching patterned paper after you’ve coloured everything. I went for my signature Terri colours of purples and greens of course.

How to make a box card

You will need:

Card base – a piece of 10.5 x 5.5 inch card
Piece of card 3 x 3.5 inches square the same as used for the card base
Patterned paper: 4 pieces of paper cut a shade smaller than 2.5 inches square and 3 pieces of patterned paper cut a shade smaller than 3 x 2.5 inches, plus one piece of plain white card of the same size to write your personal message on

Score your card base at 2.5 inches, 5 inches, 7.5 inches and 10 inches. Turn your card and score at 2.5 inches down the centre.

Using scissors, cut down the score lines on the shorter (2.5 inch square) sides as in the picture below. At the 10 inch score line, when you reach the horizontal score line, cut the card at an angle. This forms the glue tab which will turn your card base into a square box card. Burnish your score lines with a bone folder or ruler.

Next cut your patterned paper panels to the dimensions detailed above. Adhere the square paper panels to the 4 top flaps as below.

Next fold the flaps up, lay the card flat, folding it in half so the glue tab is exposed on the right hand side and secure the card closed using some strong wet glue on the glue tab. Glue the tab to the outside of the box, so the inside remains pretty, as the glue tab will be hidden by the white sentiment panel anyway. Now the box is adhered, attach the 3 other pieces of patterned paper and the white panel to the bottom portions. You have now constructed your box card!

The next step is to create the inner support panels to adhere your decorative elements to. Cut a piece of the same card that you used to construct the card base to 3 x 3.5 inches. Score the piece of card along the longer side 0.5 inches at each end. Turn the card around and score in half at 1.5 inches, then cut in half along this score line. Fold these two pieces in a Z-fold, i.e. one flap towards you and one flap away from you.

Place glue on the flaps of the first panel as shown in the photo below and line up the top of the glue tab with the top of the inside of the box. Slowly flatten the box and wiggle the other glue tab into its corresponding position on the other side of the box. As it is a square, folding the box flat and holding it for a few seconds until the glue has fully adhered, will ensure the panel is perfectly horizontal. Repeat again with the second support tab, ensuring the panels are evenly spaced along the length of the box.

Now the fun part begins – the decoration! You can go as flamboyant and jam packed as you want, or go for a more minimalist look like in my example. I coloured and fussy cut lots of mini beasts on to alcohol marker friendly card and fussy cut them. I then also stuck these onto the heavier weight purple card used for the box construction and fussy cut again. This had the multiple purposes of making the intricate images more sturdy, hiding the bleed through from the alcohol markers for the elements that were raised up and making the creatures stuck on the sides pop a bit more against the patterned paper.

You can of course choose any sentiment you wish, dependant on the occasion and recipient of the card. I have recently discovered hot foiling and the beautiful results that can be achieved with it. I had a new hot foil sentiment plate saying “so sweet” which I felt paired perfectly with this super cute make. I used a silver iridescent foil which I am in love with and works perfectly with the purple and green paper. The sentiment was in a line so once foiled (using my Gemini foiling system), I cut apart the words and glued them onto support posts, which I glued on to the horizontal mounting strips.

I arranged my fussy cut images on to the four flaps, the sentiment posts and the horizontal mounting strips. When folded flat the card is 5 inches wide, as each side of the square is 2.5 inches wide. Due to the height of my sentiment posts, this took the height up to around 6.5 inches, so this make would fit comfortably into a 5×7 inch envelope. If you kept your images and sentiments lower, you could fit it into a 5 or 6 inch square envelope.

I really like the way this card turned out and it looks great from all angles. What do you think? I hope you have enjoyed this box card tutorial and it has given you some tips and inspiration. I’ll see you again very soon with some more crafty inspiration.