Exploding Box Tutorial

At least there's one plus side to a rainy day as it's given me a chance to sit down and get this tutorial pulled together as I know there are a couple of you who have shown interst in seeing it and giving it a go yourself :-)

Materials needed:

3 x sheets of A3 or 4 x 12" square card
Corner punch
Double sided tape
Wet glue (for the box lid)
Craft knife / guillotine
Pencil
Ruler or Hougie board

Instructions on how to make the box:

1)  From your first sheet of card cut a 27cm x 27cm square and mark at 9cm and 18cm along all edges (see diagram 1 below)

DIAGRAM 1

2)  Cut away the four corner squares leaving a cross shape (see diagram 1 above)

3)  Score along the lines of the internal square (see diagram 2 below)

DIAGRAM 2

4)  From your second sheet of card cut a 25cm x 25cm square and mark at 8cm and 17cm along all edges (see diagram 3 below)

DIAGRAM 3

5)  Cut away the four corner squares leaving a cross shape (see diagram 3 above)

6)  Score along the lines of the internal square (see diagram 2 above) 

7)  From your third sheet of card cut a 23cm x 23cm square and mark at 7cm and 16cm along all edges (see diagram 4 below)

DIAGRAM 4

8)  Cut away the four corner squares leaving a cross shape (see diagram 4 above)

9)  Score along the lines of the internal square (see diagram 2 above)  

10)  Using your corner punch round all the corners (see diagram 5 below)

DIAGRAM 5

  
11)  Take the largest "cross" shape and put double sided tape (or wet glue) in the centre square ONLY.  Lay the middle sized "cross" shape onto top of this ensuring that the sides are level.  Repeat with the last, and smallest, "cross" shape.  Your base should now look like the picture below but obviously without the decoration.

12)  Decorate the internal sides of the box (ensuring that it still allows the sides to fold up to form the box shape).  Decorate the outside of the largest shape so that this is visible when the box is folded up - see picture below.

Instructions on how to make the box lid:

13)  If  you are using A3 sized card you should have a large enough piece of card left, alternatively if you are using 12" square card you will have to use another piece of card.  Cut a 17.5cm x 17.5cm square and follow diagram 6 below for the measurements for the folds.

DIAGRAM 6

14)  To make it easier when folding your box lid you will need to reduce the amount of card that goes into the corner folds.  Following diagram 7 below cut off the excess pieces.

DIAGRAM 7

15)  Fold along all the scored lines forming the shape of the box lid.  If you use wet glue at this stage it will allow you more time to get this stage correct whereas double sided tape only gives you one chance.  You now have your finished lid which, once the sides are gathered up, will fit on top of your exploding box.

16)  You can adapt the depth of overhang the lid has over the box sides by adjusting the measurements.  For this box I've used 2cm, but you can reduce or increase this amount to suit.

Instructions on how to make the cake:

17)  You should be able to use the offcuts of card from the box and lid for the cake tiers.  For the largest tier cut a 15cm x 15cm square and follow diagram 8 below for the measurements for the folds.

DIAGRAM 8

18)  For the middle tier cut a 12cm x 12cm square and follow diagram 9 below for the measurements for the folds.

DIAGRAM 9

19)  For the smallest tier cut a 9cm x 9cm square and follow diagram 10 below for the measurements for the folds.

DIAGRAM 10

20)  Fold along all the scored lines forming the shape of each cake tier.  The outside fold will not be tucked inside as it was for the box lid as these will form the tabs to secure the tiers to the box base and the other tiers (only after they have been decorated though).  If you use wet glue at this stage it will allow you more time to get it correct whereas double sided tape only gives you one chance.  You now have your finished cake tiers which can be decorated BEFORE fixing them to the box base.  Unlike the box lid overhang there is not as much allowance for the size of the cake side as this needs to fit inside the box to enable the lid to fit.  You could reduce the cake to only 2 tiers which means that you could increase the size of the sides (sorry if that sounds confusing).  Your cake tiers should look something like this once they have been decorated.

 Here are some more pictures of my finished project.  

I hope that these instructions, diagrams and pictures have been easy enough to follow and that you enjoy making your own exploding boxes.  I would love to hear your comments.

Please feel free to reference this tutorial, along with your project, on your blog and any craft sites but PLEASE spare a thought for the time and effort that has gone into producing this and a link to this tutorial would be very much appreciated :-)