The ultimate step-by-step guide to your first explosion box - Part 1

Here's a tip on folding: It is best to place a ruler flush with the line and press the carton against it. To get a cleaner edge, place your ruler flush and cut the line softly with a cutter or craft knife (available in our shop). All you have to do is be to careful not to apply too much pressure and damage the paper. In addition to the cutter, there are other folding and buckling aids such as the embossing pen* or the folding stick* that you can use. After you have folded the carton, draw the fold line. If you have one at hand, it is best to use a folding bone to smooth it out. You can find more tips for handicrafts with paper in my blog entry "Handicrafts with Paper - My Tips and Material Recommendations".

If you would like to have side pockets to insert greeting cards, money or vouchers into your box, please proceed as follows:

The opening of my pockets always points outwards, because I find it more user-friendly. However, you can also let the pockets point inwards if you like it better. This base area forms the basis for a large number of my explosion boxes, for example, also my wedding box "Aiyana". For this box, I have created one side with a greeting card for congratulations and designed the opposite side as a side pocket:

If you don't need the side pockets, you can also connect the side walls with shaped corners like hearts or triangles.

1.2 Base area A: The basic model with heart corners

Boxes with heart corners are particularly suitable as an anniversary or birthday gift for your partner. To create this base area, you need another piece of cardboard with the dimensions 10x10 cm. Draw a diagonal line and bend your cardboard to a triangle. Now draw an auxiliary point on the folded side at about 8,5 cm. Additionally mark a point on the open side at about 6,5 cm (measured from the same starting point). Now connect the two auxiliary points with an arc-shaped line. This will later represent the upper round part of your heart. When you are satisfied with the shape, cut out the heart and your corner template is complete. Then draw a diagonal auxiliary line at all the corner squares of the base area and place your heart on the line. Trace the edge of the heart with a pencil and now cut out your base area at the outer lines. Fold and bend all remaining pencil lines and smooth them out. Last but not least, erase your auxiliary lines. In my PDF download at the end of this blog post, I've already created a finished heart template for a 10 cm box. Simply print out the PDF and use it for the creation of your heart corner box. This will save you a few steps 😊.

1.3 Base area A: The basic model with triangles

To create a basic model with triangle corners, draw again a diagonal line at all corner squares and an auxiliary point halfway along the diagonal. Connect the auxiliary point with the end points of the auxiliary lines to the right and left and cut out the outer lines. Then bend the base area at the remaining pencil lines and smooth it with a folding stick. Finally, erase the pencil lines. You can get a nice effect by cutting out eight small triangles of colorful motif cardboard (matching the basic color of your box) and gluing them on the triangles. Cut a square with 8x9,7 cm out of the cardboard of your choice and draw a diagonal line with your pencil. Rotate the paper 9,7° and draw another diagonal auxiliary line. You will get four small triangles that fit perfectly on the corners of your base area. I prefer to use two different motifs which match the color of the box and glue them alternately on the base area:

Personally, I often use the simple basic model for my explosion boxes since the "explosion effect" is the biggest here. In the other two versions, the four side walls are connected and therefore the resistance to "explode" is slightly higher. I also like to use the sides of the simple basic model to create side pockets. Nevertheless, the other two models look very nice and if you weigh down the side walls of your box with design elements, they will also "explode" in a beautiful way.

A great advantage of the simple base area is that it can be easily extended by additional base elements. Depending on how much space you need, you can add more layers and create "more boxes in the box" 😊, so to speak. For example, I like to make boxes with three layers to integrate various photos and drawings into the box. I'm going to explore this layer model in more detail in the second part of this blog entry (coming soon) along with the different design elements you can use to decorate this box. As an example for this layer model, I would like to show you my very first explosion box that I have created a few years back:

1.4 Base area B: The corner box model

Let's now move on to the next base area variant - the corner box. I use this base area, for example, for my baby boxes:

In the example above, I used a corner type to build a children's room. In the center of the box there is a cradle and a rocking horse. I cut out a rectangular hole in one of the side walls to create a window which further enhances the spatial effect. The focus of the corner box is clearly on the middle. The two remaining sides are mostly used for a simple side pocket and a card.

If you're thinking of an event and a room scene pops into your head, you can turn this idea in most of the cases into a corner box. How about a classroom box as a gift for a school enrollment or a living room box for a housewarming party? There are no limits to your creativity!

The first steps to create this box are the same as above: Cut the cardboard of your choice to 30x30 cm and draw four lines with your pencil. Now cut out only one of the corner squares and cut through the adjacent auxiliary line until you hit the center square of the base area. To design the side pocket, we cut the opposite corner squares at the diagonal and the auxiliary lines above them (as shown below):

We bend the remaining auxiliary lines again with the help of our ruler and smooth the fold lines. Then we add glue to the right side of the base area. The glued side is then set up at right angles and glued again to the back of the other side. Our corner box base area is now complete. Tip: You'll find it easier if you decorate your center and sides first and then glue the sides together.

Another tip for gluing: I prefer to use double-sided tape. Double-sided adhesive tape provides a very high adhesive strength and you don't have to wait until the glue has dried. In addition, there will be also no waves in the cardboard when drying. These waves can lead to unattractive results when using liquid glue, especially when gluing thinner types of cardboard or when using a high amount of glue. You can find my "all-rounder" adhesive tape from the brand 3M (6 mm, 50 meters) here.*. This offers a sufficient adhesive strength for the firm bonding of cardboard and has as I find a good price-performance ratio. The second adhesive tape that I use very often is from the brand Rayher (6 mm, 10 meters) and is available in our shop. This tape has a slightly higher adhesive strength and is available in smaller quantities if you don't need it that often. This tape is also often found in handicraft shops. Many more tips for handicrafts with paper can also be found in this blog post on our website.

1.5 Base area C: The stage model

For this last type of base area, we need a design element in the middle that supports our back wall. I especially like to use this type to create long roads or sceneries. As an example, I would like to show you a box for baptism: Here the back wall is fixed with the help of a church:

Another popular use case for this type of base area is stage designs. Just create a small rectangular podium and connect your base area with it at right angles. This design can, for example, be used to create great gift boxes for musicals, theater or concert vouchers.

The first steps to create this type are the same as above: Cut our a cardboard of your choice to 30x30 cm and draw four lines with your pencil. The example below shows a box with a side pocket to the right and the left of the stage. Proceed according to the photo instructions below. Then make a rectangular podium that is a bit smaller than the center of your base area (in our example 9x8x1 cm) and glue the bottom and the back of the podium to your base area. Your stage is now complete and you can decorate it as you like.

2 The lid

2.1 The simple lid

Now that we have finished our base area, we need a lid to close the box. First, I would like to show you a simple lid type which is super fast and easy to create: Draw a square on our cardboard which is about 3 mm bigger than our box base area (i.e. for a box with an outside dimension of 10 cm we need a square with a side length of 10,3 cm). Now you have to decide how wide the lid flaps should be. Personally I think 4 cm is a good length, because it can hold together even heavier boxes filled with many design elements. Let's draw two lines with a length of 4 cm at each corner and connect them. Next, we have to create our glue flaps to hold the lid together. These four flaps should be approximately 1-2 cm wide and face each other:

Now cut out the outer lines, slightly trace all the inner lines with a cutter and bend the fold lines using a folding stick. Put glue on the glue flaps (or if possible, double-sided adhesive tape) and put together your lid.

2.2 The wave lid

To make the lid more beautiful, you can also use a wave cut instead of a simple straight cut. I have included a template of the wave cut for you in the PDF download below. Simply print out the template, cut it out and draw the border.

2.3 The motif lid

Another great way to add beautiful patterns to your lid are motif punches. These are available with many different motifs and will definitely bring your lid to the next level (here you can find an example of a border punch with flower pattern*).

3 You did it!

The first stage of this blog series is completed and you are now ready to start with your own explosion boxes! 😊 As promised, here is a short manual with sketches and dimensions available for you: PDF Download. If you also need further guidance on how to create your explosion boxes, then please take a look at my digital templates on this website. Among other digital products there is a DIY template for making a birthday explosion box. The template HAPPY contains not only the design templates for printing, but also detailed craft instructions and many tips and tricks for crafting with paper. Here you can continue with part 2 of this blog post. I will introduce you to various design elements for the inner area of an explosion box. Since this is my very first blog entry, I would be very happy if you leave me a comment and give me feedback on how you liked my tutorial and what I can do better in the future. Please feel free to ask any questions if something is unclear or you have problems. Also you can follow me on Instagram @suzupapers and share the results of your explosion boxes with me (#suzupaperDIY). I'd really love to see some of your new handicraft work!

See you soon! Your

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