Make a Pyramid Box

Carol Duvall had an episode during Christmas where her guest, Mary O'Neil made beautiful pyramid boxes to use for Christmas gift.  These are perfect for small, expensive gifts, especially if you use Acetate Velvet and emboss the box.  Mary used double sided sticky interfacing to attach the velvet to her box template and then finished it off with a beautiful organza bow.  Almost too pretty to open!

I found this tutorial for making the pyramid boxes, and I looked but could not find the episode of Carol Duvall anywhere online.  This is  from Things to Make and Do and you can use your imagination to design and decorate your own boxes.

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This is an unusual box that can be used for small or large gifts. There are three downloadable templates to choose from, a large template or two small templates that will fit on a sheet of A4 card, and one small template that fits on a sheet of A5 card. There are two sets of templates for each size, one with the dotted fold lines on (this is great to practice on with a sheet of paper, or if children are making the box), and one with no dotted fold lines (these are harder to use but give a more professional finish). These boxes are easy to make with no gluing required and can be used for a variety of gift ideas including favours at a wedding or for small gifts hanging from a Christmas tree. The larger pyramid measures nearly 8 cm across the base and 4½ cm high, the small pyramid base is 5¼ cm wide and 3 cm high.

You will need:

A4 or A5 card
Scissors
Craft knife or bone folder
Ruler
Hole punch
Ribbon

What to do

1. Download the template onto card, or onto paper and trace the design onto card. Remember there are two sets of templates for each size, one with the dotted fold lines (this is great to practice on with a sheet of paper, or if children are making the box), and one with no dotted fold lines (these are harder to use but give a more professional finish).

Download Large Pyramid Box Template


Download Large Pyramid Top Template without dotted lines


Download single small Pyramid Box A5 Template


Download single small Pyramid Box A5 Template without dotted lines


Download two small Pyramid Boxes A4 Template


Download two small Pyramid Boxes A4 Template without dotted lines

2. Cut out the template.

3. Score the fold lines using either a craft knife or bone folder and ruler, if you are using a craft knife, do not cut through the card. The scoring is just to help the card to fold.

4. Punch a hole where marked near the top of each triangle.

5. Fold over the sides and narrow flaps, pressing with your finger to make crisp folds.

6. Put the small gift into the box and close the top of the pyramid with ribbon. Take a ribbon end and thread it through the punched holes. Start by threading from the front of one hole into the box then through the next hole from inside to outside the box, go into the third hole from the outside and then thread through the last hole from the inside to the outside. Tie the two ribbon ends together with a slip knot and finish with a bow.

7. If you need to make a loop to hang the pyramid up by (Christmas tree decoration) then after threading the ribbon through all four holes and tying the ends together with a slip knot, thread the ribbon back through the box, under the ribbon making a loop, tie another slip knot and finish off with a bow, this can be a little tricky so another pair of hands may come in handy. Or, after tying a bow to close the top, thread a separate piece of ribbon through and tie a knot to make a loop.

Christmas Piñatas

Here's a quick and inexpensive tutorial for making Christmas pinatas.  Make several and decorate the tree with gifts, or make a group to give as gifts to friends and acquaintances.  These look simple and easy, so you have time to make plenty.  This also looks like a fun craft to make with the kids!

This was discovered on AllCrafts.com.



I have been wanting to make little papier-mâché Piñatas for such a long time after seeing them on Not Martha, and Christmas seems like the perfect time to make these little balls filled with sweets or toys. They are easy to make with young ones, and fun to find fillings for. Children will enjoy pulling them apart and seeing what’s inside, and everyone will enjoy making them and seeing them hung up around fireplaces, on trees, or clustered on a door or shelf.
With a simple flour and water paste* mixed to a smooth gloopy consistency and papier-mâché strips of tissue paper around semi blown up balloons of about 10-15cm diameter.

Leave a gap around the top as your opening – enough to get goodies inside.

Leave to dry till the case is hard, and then deflate the balloon by pricking it or cutting it with scissors (it won’t pop, but will let air out slowly as it removes itself from the inside of the papier-mâché case).

Once you have the empty shell, you can fill with whatever you like – small bags of sweets, toys, biscuits, glitter or cut out pieces of paper, small puzzles to put together, or even write out your own jokes to tell.

Then take another piece of tissue paper and a length of ribbon and seal the opening with more flour/water paste.

Have fun decorating! Finally add a small tag to the ribbon which says ‘Pull Me’ to help open.

Pull open, and enjoy!
* For those with gluten or wheat allergies, the following alternatives to wheat flour can be used: Tapioca flour, rice flour. Experiment with other flours to see if they work, or alternatively use a white paste with PVA craft glue watered down, however I tried here to limit the amounts of glue being used in the whole project. You may want to add some salt to the paste to prevent mould as well.