Watercolor Origami Gift Box

Happy Wednesday! Today I decided to try out some origami. This is the first origami project I have done and it couldn’t have been easier. I decided to paint my paper first, but there is tons of paper out there with pretty designs that would look amazing with these boxes.

What you will need:

1. Watercolor
2. Paintbrushes
3. Scrapbook paper or other thick paper (2 pieces per box)
4. Glue stick (optional)

Begin by painting the paper you are going to use for your boxes. After the paint dries, cut one of the pieces of paper to make it a couple centimeters smaller than the other. Try to get your paper as square as possible (some of my paper had grid lines on it, which made this pretty easy).

Once your paper is ready, it is time to fold. I found this diagram on how to fold an origami box, which was extremely helpful. Make sure your paper is pattern side down before you begin folding. 

Start by folding your paper corner to corner both ways, then fold all four corners into the middle (it is easy to tell where the middle is because it is where the first two folds cross).

Next, fold two of the sides into the middle of the paper, then unfold them and fold over the other two sides.

Lastly, start to form the sides of the box. Completely unfold two corners that are across from each other. Then fold the other two corners so that they start to form the sides of the box. Take one of the unfolded sides and fold that over, pushing the paper in to form the corners of the box. Do the same to the other side, creasing the folds more as you go. Repeat that entire process with the other piece of paper.

I decided to glue down the paper on the inside of the box so that it wouldn’t lift up, but the form of the box will stay if your don’t glue the paper down. Here is what the inside of the box should look like (with all the paper completely folded down).

After you have folded both pieces of paper, the paper that was cut a little smaller should fit perfectly into the larger side. You can wrap gifts in the boxes or use them for all sorts of things. I made boxes of many size ranges so they are able to serve tons of different purposes. I didn’t end up using all my watercolor paper so I am super excited to do some more origami projects in the future!