Paper Sachet Boxes

Think you can't make round or heart shaped boxes from paper? Think again! With a little planning and patience, you can make some beautiful paper boxes! We used 110 lb. cardstock and punched holes in the tops of these boxes to use them for a sachet. Place some potpourri or scented wax pellets in these pretty boxes and place them in a closet or drawer for a wonderful fragrance! Great as gifts or favors!

We're providing the instructions for the round box, but the heart shaped box follows the same directions. You can also make oval or tear-shaped boxes the same way. Just get the hang of the tab cutting and gluing and you'll be making all sorts of pretty shaped boxes!

MATERIALS:

1 sheet of 110 lb. cardstock (or the heaviest your printer will handle)

Scissors (those little curved manicure scissors work great for cutting out the rounded shapes!)

Glue stick

Paper hole punch or other decorative paper punches

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Open a blank page in your graphics program in portrait orientation. Place a rectangle on the page that covers the entire page and fill with the color or design of your choice. Print this out on the cardstock. Then take the sheet out of the printer and turn it over so the next print will be on the opposite side, but don’t print the other side yet.

2) Draw a circle on the page measuring 2 ½ “ with a light colored outline and no fill. Move this circle over to the left side of the page.

3) Copy and paste that first circle and resize it so that it is 1/8” larger than the first one. Move this circle to the left of the page beneath the first one. Continue this step until you have four circles lined up on the left side of your page, each one being 1/8” larger than the one above it.

4) Place a small text box in the center of each circle and label them “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” from the smallest circle on down.

5) Draw a rectangle on the page with no fill and a light colored outline. Make this rectangle the full height of the page and 1 ¼” wide. This will be the “wall” for the bottom of the box. Move it to the right side of your page.

6) Copy and paste this rectangle and resize it so that it is still the full height of the page, but only 1” wide. Move this rectangle next to the first one. This will be the “wall” for the box top.

7) Print the page on the blank side of your cardstock and carefully cut out the four circles and two rectangles. Do NOT cut off the unprinted margins on your box wall rectangles yet!

8) Score each of the rectangular pieces from top to bottom (the long way) 1/4” in from one edge. This will be where you cut the “nicks” to fold and allow the wall to curve around the circular base.

9) Starting below the score mark (you’ll be cutting the narrower edge – see illustration below) make little diagonal cuts so that you wind up with a piece that looks something like a saw blade. Remember that the closer together you make these little “nicks” the smoother the curve will be when you apply the walls to the base.

10) Take the circle labeled “A” and apply the glue stick around the edge of the side with the letter on it.

11) Take the wider of the two rectangles and fold along the score line. Carefully begin pressing the teeth into place all around the bottom of the circle, curving and pressing as you go. (Your hands WILL get a little sticky, but the finished product is worth it!)

12) When you get near the end, snip off any excess and apply glue to the edge of the band. Attach those last few teeth and press the band to the other end of itself.

13) Lay the box flat on the table (sticky side down) and press on the circle from the inside all the way around the edges to make certain the tabs are well adhered. Now apply glue to the entire surface of the circle labeled “B” (on the letter side) and press it into place on the bottom of the box. This will cover all those tabs and make the bottom of the box more stable.

14) Before you do the same with the box top, decide where you want to punch the holes on the box top. Once you have decided, attach the two remaining circles to each other with the letter sides together. Use only a very small dab from the glue stick in the center since you will be peeling them apart once the holes are punched.

15) Punch the holes through BOTH circles. Once this is done, separate the circles and proceed as you did with the box bottom. Just make sure that when you apply the last circle you line up all the holes so that they match before gluing them together.

16) You can use the little manicure scissors, if you have them (a GREAT crafting tool, by the way, so if you don’t have one you might want to pick one up the next time you’re at the drug store or cosmetics counter!) to trim off any excess along the circle edges.

That’s all there is to it! You can do the exact same thing by using a heart shape instead of a circle, it just takes a bit more patience to get those peak and valley folds when you’re applying the “wall” to the heart shaped box. Best bet on the heart shaped box is to start your wall just before the “valley” at the top of the heart. Crease the wall at that point and at the point at the bottom of the heart. This way your wall will begin and end at that “valley” point and will have a nice, neat finished look!

Paper Sachet Box Instructions

For a print friendly version, click on this link.