Heart shaped boxes

Hi! Crafters!

These boxes could be made at other times of the year for instead mother’s day or special birthday. Maybe with these instructions you could make other shapes, too.

 

Materials:  computer printer, A letter sized sheet of photo paper, lightweight card, or good quality printer paper and some thin card to glue it to, White (PVA) glue, Sharp Fine Pointed Scissors curved and straight,    Straight Edge for scoring the box side tabs, Paper embossing tool or a rounded toothpick or other implement to press the glued tabs in place, Optional – lining paper for interiors if you wish.

Instructions:

Begin by printing the Adobe Acrobat (pdf ) file for the Heart Shaped Box Parts

Begin Assembly of the Miniature Heart Shaped Boxes

Parts of a printable miniature box ready to be assembled as a dolls house valentine, or to hold chocolates or wedding favors.

Cut out your chosen box parts from the printable patterns.  It is easiest to begin by building a larger box, then gradually working down in scale if you want 1:24 size valentine boxes.

For each box you will need a top, a bottom (with a heart shaped center) and two side strips. You can make the largest boxes into wedding or party favor boxes by using the taller side strips.

Cut one edge of the side strips to make the toothed tabs which will hold the sides to the bottom or top of the box.

Begin Assembly

When you have the parts cut out, fold each of the side strips in half, with the colored sides together. Then fold the edge of the strip along a straight edge so that the toothed tabs are facing at a 90 degree angle away from the side strip (towards the uncolored side).

Take one of the side strips and put the fold at the top center of the heart printed inside the edge of the box bottom. Using the heart shape printed on the bottom as a guide, shape the side strip to form the top lobes of the heart and follow the heart shaped guide to the bottom point. Mark and fold your side strip where it touches the bottom point of the heart. Trim off the tabs between this fold and the short end of the side strip. Repeat the shaping for the other side, but trim the entire side strip off just above the bottom point.

Finish the Bottom Section of the Heart Shaped Box.

Attach the sides to the bottom of a printable miniature heart shaped box.

When you have the bottom strip trimmed and curved (according to the previous step instructions) use a glue spreader to apply a small amount of glue to the tabbed edges of the box side. Set the center fold of the side strip at the top center point of the heart, and carefully run the side along the heart shaped guide mark on the box base, gluing the tabs in place as you go. When you get to the bottom point of the heart, go back and glue down the tabs for the other side of the box bottom.

To finish the side edges, glue the straight, non tabbed section of the box (the one you made by cutting off the tabs in the previous step) to the tabbed section which ends at the heart's bottom point. Run a glue spreader, a rounded toothpick or an embossing tool over the tabs on the inside of the box to make sure they are squarely glued to the bottom of the box. Set the box bottom aside to dry.

Make the Lid for a Miniature Heart Shaped Box

When the box bottom has dried, fold and trim the remaining tab section the same way as you did in step three. This time, use the bottom of the box to act as a guide for the top section (it is easiest if you set this section up tightly inside the bottom you have just completed, with the tabs facing where the top will be.

Glue the side strip together inside the completed bottom of the box, folding all the tabs down. Apply a thin layer of glue to the tabs, and carefully center the box top over the base, pressing it in place on the glued tabs. Turn the complete box over and press it to secure the side tabs to the box top.  Leave to dry. Remove the box lid from inside the base.

Depending on your box making technique, you may want to remove the box top from the base before your glue dries. If this works for you, press the tabs securely down against the top once you have removed it from the base and set it aside to dry.

Finish the Interior of the Heart Shaped Box

The completed top and bottom of a miniature heart shaped box.

If you wish, you can line the inside of the box with a piece of colored paper to cover the tabs.

To make favor boxes to hold candies, a chocolate or a small gift, use the deeper side sections of the largest boxes. The thinner sides in 1:6 scale are to make 1:6 scale size Valentines Chocolate boxes for fashion dolls.

Share your ideas on this or anything here on the blog either here or e-mail me at sandi_tipple@yahoo.com.  I look forward to hearing from you!