How to Make a Box Using a Paper Plate

Are you like me? Do you troll Pinterest and find the most awesome crafts that you just have to make, only to attempt and fail miserably?

Here's an example of one of my horrible Pinterest fails. My husband and I attempted to make an ornament out of my 9-month-old son's hand-print. This is what we got instead (note to parents- if you think you can apply baby paint to a sleeping baby's hand, they WILL wake up. Murphy's Law).

So much for a cute hand-print ornament. We decided to go with the flow though and gave our son crayons once the paint dried and let him go to town. This will no doubt be a Christmas conversation piece for years to come!

I stumbled on a Pinterest picture on how to make a small box out of an everyday paper plate, and while it was only a picture without any real directions, I decided to give it a try, not at all expecting it to turn out...but it did. And now I'm obsessed. My very first Pinterest non-fail!

To make a box out of a paper plate, you'll need a paper plate (of course). You'll also need some scissors, a napkin, tape and ribbon or bows- or both if you want to get fancy.

Cut two straight lines on either side of the paper plate. You don't really need to mark where you're going to cut (I did to show you), but you can if you want. Just don't cut all the way down.  My cuts were only a couple of inches in.

Fold in the pieces that you cut, and then fold the larger halves in toward the middle (think of it like folding in the sides of a towel), and be sure to press down to create a nice little crease.

Fold in the sides on the bottom and tape them securely. If you're worried about the inside flaps being flappy, tape them on the inside.

You can trim off any excess over-flap you might have if you're a perfectionist (definitely no judgement here!). When you're done, it should look something like this.

Next, unfold a small napkin and place it inside your paper plate box. I found that if I put the napkin in on a diagonal that it looked a bit nicer.

Fill your box up with whatever you want. I put cookies in  mine, but you could put in candies, or an ornament. Use your imagination! Then, put ribbon and or bows around your box and you're done!