Add a personal touch to any gift by making your own little box with this free mini gift box template. It makes a great jewellery gift box and is ideal for any small present. I’ve two different templates here. One with a pre-drawn pattern for you to colour (more designs coming soon) and one blank for you to decorate yourself. Being round when laid flat, you could draw your own mandala, for example. I’ve also included instructions on how to draw the template from scratch so that you can make the box any size you wish.

Finished size: 12cm (corner to corner)

Capacity: 5 x 5 x 3 cm (suitable for a gft up to this size)

Difficulty: Easy to moderate 

The tricky bit is marking and scoring the fold lines. Other than that, these cute little gift boxes are easy to make. I’d love to see what you make so do tag me @MandalaMeadow, or use the hashtag #MandalaMeadow, when you share it on share media.

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What you’ll need to make this gift box

1. Thick A4 paper or thin card

2. A mathematical compass

3. Cutting board or an old magazine (so you don’t damage the table while using the compass)

4. A piece of felt (it helps with making the score lines)

5. Rubber

6. Small scissors

7. Double-sided sticky tape

8. Printer (if you are using one of my premade templates)

9. A ruler and pencil (if you are making your own template)

10. Colouring pens (optional) 

Daisy gift box template

Here’s the first template for this cute little gift box with a pre-drawn design for you to colour. You can download it here, DAISY GIFT BOX TEMPLATE.

Peru gift box template

Here’s a new template of a Peru-inspired mandala gift box. That’s a condor in the centre of the mandala, the most sacred bird to the Incas, who believed they were the messengers of the gods. You can download it here, PERU GIFT BOX TEMPLATE.

Blank gift box template

This is a blank template for you to decorate yourself which you can download here, SMALL GIFT BOX  BLANK TEMPLATE PDF.

How to make a small gift box

I hope these step by step instructions are easy to follow. Your feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

1. Print the template of your choice on a thick A4 paper or thin card compatible with your printer.

2. Score the dashed fold lines. The easiest way to do this is by placing a piece of felt under the paper. This makes it easier to make the scoreline. Next, insert a compass point on one of the small cross marks that you’ll find around the outside of the template (see below).

Line the pencil end of the compass with the top of the adjacent dotted arch.

Now draw over the dotted line with enough force to score the paper without tearing it. Repeat the process for all the dotted lines. Once done you can rub out your pencil mark.

4. Cut out the template around the solid grey line.

5. Here comes the tricky bit. Carefully make folds along the scored dotted lines.

6. Add double-sided sticky tape to the two side tabs on the bottom of your box. (The bottom has the large daisy on it).

7. Bring the top and bottom of your box together and stick the sides down.

How to draw your own gift box template

If you’d like a different size of gift box or you want one made out of paper or card that you can’t put in your printer, this is how to draw this gift box template from scratch.

1. Draw a rectangle that is twice as long as it is high.

2. Draw a line through the middle giving you two equal squares.

3. Draw a circle that touches each corner of the left-hand box.

4. Do the same for the right-hand box.

5. Draw a small semi-circle inside the left hand circle as shown below.

6. Measure the radius of the circles.

7. Use this measurement to draw an arch as shown below.

8. Repeat this for each side of the squares.

9. You should now have a drawing that looks like this.

10. Now score the fold line on the grey arches shown below. To do this place your paper on top of a piece of felt and redraw the arches with just enough force to make an indentation in the paper.

11. Once you have scored all the fold lines, cut out your gift box along the green line as shown below.

12. You can now fold and stick the sides down as previously described but this time with the drawing guides hidden on the inside of the box.