Make your own origami display box

We love anything creative and are always encouraging our children to make things and enjoy the creative process. When we were in Devon this summer our niece made Edith and Maggie an origami box each, which they could fill with their beach finds. As a family we love scouring the beach for sea glass and interesting shells etc so it was the perfect gift. The box was blank so they could then add their own designs to it which they loved and was an activity they could all do together. During the course of the holiday the boxes were filled with shells, pebbles, sea glass in every shade of green, white and blue and lots more! Some have now made it onto display shelves in their rooms whilst others have remained in the boxes for safe keeping and a lovely reminder of our holiday. Below is a picture of Maggie's original box which sparked this whole idea for our elevate your finds focus.

We thought it would be a lovely to share this idea so that you could make your own display/treasure boxes. Fill them with your own treasures or give them as gifts to family, friends or even teachers this Christmas!

If you're keen to give it a go check out this really easy to follow youtube step by step guide video.

What you need

Scissors
Paper
Pens, pencils or paint
Ruler for measuring the different sized paper
Pencils for drawing your design first
Anything else you need for decorating the box
A bit of patience! Don't worry if you get it wrong. Watch the video again and have another go

Top tips:

The video shows one box size, but you can make any size box you want. You just need to ensure the two different pieces of paper are slightly different in size. The video suggests 0.5cm difference, but I think 1cm is better so the lid easily fits the base.
Make sure your folds are really obvious because it will help when you come to the final stage of folding into a box!
You could use plain paper for the lid and a different coloured paper for the base so there's a nice pop of colour when you open it up.

Box theme ideas

I'm sure you're full of ideas already but if you need a hand below are some suggestions along with some pictures of ones we've made. (A big thank you to my nieces Florence, Bella and Tilly who helped show off some of their ideas.) Obviously we're all getting into the Christmas spirit, but these boxes could be for any time of the year so just let your creative juices flow!