Holiday Wrapping One



Sometimes you just don't have a box to fit the item that you want to wrap. Other times, the box that you do have is too large for the wrapping paper that you have on hand. If you don't want to design your own wrapping paper then the only other option would be to make your own box. 

Here is a custom order for a handmade box for a very special item that will be given away for a birthday. Here is the bottom half of the box. The bottom of the box is 11" by 16" by 3.5"  Here is the unlined bottom of the box.



 

 

 

Here is the actual bottom of the box. This is wrapped with an entire sheet of paper that has cutouts so there are only seams at the corners. This is an nontraditional way of wrapping boxes with handmade boxes. Normally there is a lining on the inside and on the bottom. With this method, there is one continuous sheet of paper that is cut so that it folds over itself and over the walls of the box--only leaving a need for a liner on the inside of the box.

 

 

 

For every box bottom, there is a need for a box top.  Here is the top of the box being constructed. The rubber bands hold the box top together while it dries. The box top and bottom are hand cut from Davey Board to fit the contents that it will hold.

 

 

Before covering the box top with paper, it is best to do a dry fit to make sure that it will fit the box bottom. I don't want to mention the number of times that I have had to remake a box top or bottom because I was in a rush and just assumed that the tops and bottoms would fit. There are many reasons why they tops and bottoms wouldn't fit--mis-measuring, paper thicknesses, boxes out of square. So in short, you should always dry fit the tops and bottoms.

 



 

 

The linings of the tops and bottoms are paper covered museum board in order to give the tops and bottoms more heft. Also, if for some reason you need to cover some mistakes in the top and/or bottom, the museum board allows you to cover those errors. Here is one of the liners done in a matching gold paper that corresponds to the gold in the Japanese paper.

 

 

Here is the liner being weighed down for its final drying. The bricks allow for more all over pressure to make sure that there is full contact. The bricks lie atop a piece of scrap Dave Board so that the bricks do not indent the liner paper or museum board.

 



 

 

Here is the final product. I am very happy with the final result. More importantly, I am very happy with the way that the pattern matches on the box top and box bottom.