Explosion box maker
Explosion box template
A small cube whose walls fall open when you lift the lid, showing a layer inside, and another inside that. Choose 3 or 4 layers, the side and the height.
How to fold it
Print at 100% on cardstock; 200 to 250 gsm makes walls that spring open cleanly.
Cut out every cross and the lid. The crosses get smaller from the outer layer in; keep them in order.
Crease the four edges of each cross's centre square and fold every wall up and down a few times so it falls open on its own.
Glue the second cross's centre square on the first one's, centred, then the third on the second (and the fourth on the third).
Decorate the inside walls: photos, notes, a small gift on the innermost square.
Fold all the walls up, outer layer last, and slide the lid down over them. Lift it and the box opens out.
How the template is drawn
Layers that nest
Each inner layer is 2.5 mm (0.1 in) narrower than the one round it at 2 × 2 in: two board thicknesses and 1 mm of room on each side, so its walls stand just inside the last ones without rubbing.
Stepped heights
Each layer is 12% lower than the one round it, so the walls show as steps when the box opens and every layer's top edge can carry a strip of decoration.
The innermost room
With 3 layers the innermost square is 1.8 in (45.8 mm) across inside: room for a folded note, a ring or a chocolate.
No glue on the walls
Only the centre squares are glued. The walls are left free, so the lid alone holds them up, and they fall open together when it comes off.
The lid
A tray 0.8 mm (0.03 in) a side bigger than the outer layer (0 to 3 mm under Settings), 15.2 mm (0.6 in) deep, with its glue tabs hidden behind its side walls.
Anniversaries, proposals and photo gifts
An explosion box is a scrapbook you can hold: a photo on every wall, a message inside each layer and a small gift in the middle. On one sheet it is a small box, about 1.7 in on Letter or A4 and over 2 in on A3 or Tabloid; print it on patterned card and the outside needs nothing more.
For a plain gift box with the same slip-on lid, use the box with lid; for a cube with no lid, the cube net; for a heart-shaped keepsake, the heart box; and for a gift that opens like petals, the hexagonal pyramid box tied with a ribbon.
