Box Card Ideas

These box cards are much easier to make than you might think and are super impressive as a handmade gift.

I think I saw one of these box cards first from one of the die cut card making companies and thought they looked super neat.

I waited a bit before attempting my own design because I was a little intimidated. I soon realized it was actually quite straight forward and with a single base template, you can create a ton of different looks.

Here in this tutorial, I’ll go over how to make a basic box card base. You can then add whatever decorative piece you want to it. Even the same template can create a dozen different looks depending on what color scheme and placement you choose.

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Material for Box Cards

Cardstock – I like to use medium weight cardstock with color cores. Some of these designs are quite details and the color cores hide the fraying a bit of the paper. Here are some of my favorite brands:

• Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
• Cricut Joy Insert Card Packs – You don’t have to use these with the Cricut Joy, they are nice material kids for cardmaking.
• Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte-colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
• Poptone Assorted Variety Pack – This is the perfect peppy assortment of colors of heavy cardstock. It’s a heavy cardstock assortment with colors I actually use frequently for cardmaking.
• Seasonal Assorted Variety Pack – This is a slight variation on the Poptone assortment and has a quite few neutrals that complement almost any accent color.
• Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go-to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.

Glue – I use a variety of different glues for cardmaking. The most important aspect if using glues that don’t warp the paper. Here are some of the brands I use frequently:

• Scotch Adhesive Roller Dispenser
• Rubber Cement
• Glue Pen
• Art Glitter Glue
• Foam Tape

Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.

Templates – Both the floral and dinosaur box card templates are available for free in both SVG and printable formats in my free resource library.

Basic box card tutorial

Step 1: cut out all the templates

I like using a fresh blue mat for cutting cardstock. Some of these designs are intricate so it is important to use a fresh mat. A more used standard mat also works.

I don’t like scoring with the Cricut so I usually do the scoring part by hand.

Step 2: Score the piece by hand

I find the easiest thing to do is to get a ruler or some sort of straight edge and a scraper or credit card.

I’ve included the scoring lines in the templates. While you might not use them with the Cricut, you can use the visual to understand where to place the scoring marks by hand.

Step 3: Fold along all the scoring lines

Depending on your paper, you may be able to get away with not scoring. However, I still do a score when I can because it creates a cleaner crease.

Step 4: Glue the vertical side tab of the box

There is really no other way to glue it so I won’t go into more detail on exactly where to place the glue.

I like to use my adhesive glue roller for this part.

Step 5 : Glue the insert

Once you have folded the insert, it should look like the following picture. I like to apply some glue to the left most tabs (in the picture). The reason I don’t apply glue to the right side is I want to be able to slide a bit when the card is flattened.

The template is designed such that even if glue both side, it should still flatten but I find something always becomes misaligned in the folding process and it is just easier to leave it unglued.

Step 6: Add the decorative pieces

This last part is really up to you. I just place all the cut outs on the grassy area randomly.

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