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Valentine’s Day is nearly here and it’s got everyone thinking about gifts – my five year old included!

She wants to gift her friends something special and handmade this year and has a million ideas running through her head! She keeps coming to me with a new (and sometimes absurd) idea every other day and insists that we start on the project without any delay.

So, this weekend, I finally gave in to her demands and we decided to make something for her friends that would be cute, handmade and with the ability to hold candy –

DIY Origami Gift Box for Valentine’s Day

We made the boxes and the cute little heart shaped letters, and stuffed them with heart shaped candy – a gift irresistible to anyone, and not just five year old girls!

Materials Required:

• 6”x 6” papers in shades of pink and red, for the origami boxes (Go for approximately 160 gsm papers as anything thicker than that will be difficult to fold and anything thinner will be too flimsy)
• Red/pink pipecleaners or chenille sticks
• Sequins
• Glitter hearts
• Heart shaped candy
• Red/pink pompoms
• Twine, preferably in pink or red
• Glue

Instructions:

1. We started off making the Origami gift box with a tutorial from Zakka Life. You can refer that along with our step by step instructions below.

2. Start by folding the square paper into quarters, so that you get creases as shown. Fold the four corners inward so they meet in the center and you get a diamond shape. Turn the diamond around so you’re now facing a square.

3. Fold opposite sides to meet in the center, doing it first vertically then horizontally. Open out the folds on the left and right.

4. Now fold the two top and bottom edges towards the center. Then fold the bottom corners inward, to meet the upper edges. Repeat in the opposite direction, i.e. folding the top corners inward to meet the bottom edges.

5. Open all the folds in step 4. You should now have creases to use as a guide for the rest of the folding.

6. Prop up the top and bottom edges to make the walls of the box. Then prop up the other edges and fold the pointy flaps in to secure the walls. You can use some glue here to make it hold better.

7. We moved on to the box lids once we were done with the boxes. We chose a color coordinating with the box for the lids. The steps to make the lid are the same till step 2 where you get the diamond shape. After this step, instead of folding all the way till the center of the diamond, leave a little gap in the middle as shown in the image below.

8. Do the same on the other side. This will ensure that the lid is a little bigger than the box.

9. Okay, so now that we are done with the boxes, we can start decorating them! Take half a pipe cleaner and fold it in half. stick the 2 ends together and shape it into a heart.

10. Apply glue to the back of the heart and stick it onto the top of box lid, pressing it down for a few seconds. You can also use glue dots or hot glue.

11. Once the heart is stuck spread glue all over the inside of the heart and fill it up with sequins. Leave it to dry completely.

12. Cut out a heart shape from glitter foam or card stock and write your message at the back. I stamped “Happy Valentine’s Day” onto our hearts as I don’t have a great handwriting; Miss K wrote out the names of her friends.

13. Follow the steps in the image below to fold the heart into the shape of an envelope, tie a piece of twine around it to keep it in place. We also added a “Happy Valentine’s Day” banner to the twine.

14. Finish your Origami Gift box by putting in heart shaped chocolates, pom poms and the tiny message on top. Doesn’t it look simply lovely?

We tried different color combinations and different ways to decorate the lids. Our boxes were nowhere close to being perfect but we had so much fun making these and now we can’t wait to hand them out to Miss K’s friends!

The folding instructions for the Origami Gift Box may seem complicated, but the boxes are incredibly easy to make. I showed Miss K how to make one box and she could make the next one on her own with just a little help from me. It was not perfect of course, but the look of satisfaction and accomplishment on her face made it completely worth it!

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• 15 Simple Valentine’s Day Craft Ideas for Kids

• Free Printable Valentine’s Day Memory Game

• 30 Best Classroom Valentine Ideas for Kids