Today I want to share how easy it is to change sizes of the squishy box to suit what you want to put in it. I’ve been playing with this lately because I’ve been making more grab gifts for my customers at my classes. Here are two of them in different sizes featuring the Tin of Tags stamp set on the labels.

You can make the bottom of the box almost 3″ by 3″. Here’s the way to think about it – the box is made out of one piece of paper and with 4 sides. Since the maximum length of paper is 12 inches, your 4 sides need to add up to no more than 12. In fact, no more than 11.5″ because you need an edge to glue. So in the examples above, I have a box which is 2 3/4″ square ( 2 3/4 four times is 11 inches, so that works) and another which is 3 inches across the front and 2 3/4″ deep ( 3 inches twice plus 2 3/4 inches twice is 11.5 inches). The scoring is obviously driven by the size of your sides so in the first case, my 2 3/4″ square, you first cut off the spare half an inch (since the 4 sides plus half an inch for gluing equal 11.5 inches). Then you score along the long side at 2 3/4, then 2 3/4 further along which is 5.5″, then another 2 3/4″ at 8 1/4 inches and finally at 11 inches. I decided to score along the short side at 2 inches and have another 4 inches for the top of the bag. The reason for this was to get 2 bags out of a piece of 12 by 12 DSP and because what I was putting in the bags is not very tall. The tabs at the bottom of the box don’t cover the entirety of the bottom, but that’s okay.

To finish the bag, cut up on the red lines, remove the yellow and glue the box together. Pinch the tops together and you’re good to go. Either punch holes for ribbon or use a clothes pin/peg and then attach a tag using the Tin of Tags set for decoration.

I hope that you can see that it’s possible to make quite a variety of sizes changing the width and depth of the box. Just make sure that the opposite sides are the same widths and you’re good to go. Of course, it’s possible to make a bag out of more than a single sheet of paper, but that’s for another day!

I used the Tin of Tags stamp set to make my tags – love that big Surprise. Mine are using retired DSP  (such a good use for it) and the real red ribbon is retired also. The lovely striped melon mambo stitched ribbon is current though and I just got the same ribbon in bermuda bay. It’s beautiful too.

I hope you enjoyed today’s project – feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Please use the hostess code to get free product; the current one is XD4D794N (if your order is over $150, don’t use the code, you get the rewards, but you still get the free gift from me). Click here to go to my online shop or here to join my team. To sign up for Paper Pumpkin, click here. The “buy 3 get one free” offer for DSP is good for the rest of the month.

See you tomorrow,

Liz