Make a Victorian Box from Old Cards

Victorian Style Hand Crafted Box Using Recycled Greetings Cards

Oct 14, 2009

Instructions on how to make a vintage gift box from recycled cards. This traditional Victorian craft and hobby turns old cards into original gift containers.

Once, boxes like this were made in junior schools all over the UK around the Christmas period. Like many of these old fashioned quirky crafts, it appears to be forgotten, along with dogs made from cigarette packets and cathedrals made from match sticks!

You Will Need:

A cardboard template (instructions below)
12 Christmas cards
Embroidery Silk
Sharp-pointed Darning needle

Make a Cardboard Template

From cardboard, make a square 5 ½ “ (14cm) on each side. The corners of the square should then be slightly curved.

Make curves for corners of the square by either:

Finding the centre of the square and drawing the curves using a compass – or
Placing a saucer or other round object onto the template and drawing the curve onto the four corners of the template.

Choose and Organise Christmas Cards

Choose twelve Christmas cards which have attractive traditional scenes. Twelve cards are needed as they will be doubled up to ensure the inside is just as pretty as the outside, plus this makes the box stronger too.

Using the cardboard template, cut out the twelve Christmas card scenes. Make sure the scenes look attractive within the template space, i.e. nicely centred.

Decide which scenes are to be used for the outside front, back, sides, bottom and lid. Then do the same again, but this time for the inside of the box.

Organise the Box Parts

Put the outside and inside scenes together in pairs for each section of the box, i.e. inside and ouside of front, inside and outside of lid, etc. – make sure the inside scenes are not upside down or back to front (easily done!).

In particular, be careful that the scene used for the inside of the lid will show the correct way up when the lid is opened, i.e. not upside down.

The same applies to the inside bottom of the box, so that when peeping into the box the scene on the bottom is the right way up, not upside down.

Sew the Box Parts Together

With a sharp darning needle, two strands of embroidery thread (cotton or silk) and using blanket stitch, sew the outside and inside scene pairs together around all four sides.

Sewing two cards together can be a bit tough on the fingers so a thimble might be useful. (Some people hole-punch tiny holes at regular intervals along the cards and then sew them together).

The result will be six double-sided pieces of stitched card.

Assembling the Box – Sew Box Sides to Bottom

Select the box bottom piece.

Select a side piece.

Sew the bottom of this side piece to a side of the box bottom.

Use an overstitch, sewing through the top of the blanket stitches on each card not through the card itself. The needle will glide through and the joined cards will be quite flexible.

Repeat these steps with the three other sides.

There will now be a central piece (the bottom) with four side pieces attached and it will look like a cross when laid out.

Assembling the Box – Sew Box Sides Together

Again using the over stitch through the tops of the blanket stitches, sew the eight side pieces together to make the box shape.

Sewing round the bottom curves can be tricky, but try not to leave too large a gap – fill the space with wider stitches if necessary.

Your box has now come together and the sides should bulge very slightly.

Assembling the Box – Sew On The Box Lid

Using the same over-stitch method as before,i.e. over stitch through the top of blanket stitch, sew the lid onto the back of the box. The lid should open and close easily.

Make a Tassel for the Box

Using the same colour embroidery silk as used for the box, make a tassel to go on the front of the lid.

Here are some instructions for making a small tassel to finish off the box.

The Victorian style hand crafted box is now ready to fill with small presents, a silk scarf, chocolates, toys, etc.

See Also:

How to Buy Bargain Christmas Gifts for Children - suggestions for beating the credit crunch.
What to do When You're Alone at Christmas - ideas for those who will be alone at Christmas.
Traditional English Christmas Cake Recipe - instructions on how to make Christmas Cake.

The copyright of the article Make a Victorian Box from Old Cards in Crafts is owned by Kathleen Duffy. Permission to republish Make a Victorian Box from Old Cards in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.