How to fold an origami box

1. Wet a slick surface and paint with watercolors + liquid clear soap or acrylics quickly then lay your 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch copier paper over the paint = monoprints. Repeat until the surface is covered and let dry.

2. Turn the paper over and lightly mark the center point, by crossing diagonal lines from the corners with a pencil.

3. With the painted side down, fold the corners in, exactly to the center and repeat for all the corners. Make sure to crease the folds well, you can rub over the folds with a clean ruler or piece of cardboard.

4. Fold all 4 sides to the center point creasing each well.

5. Unfold the sides, then cut on the side fold to the first fold line. (2) on a side , and (2) on the opposite side only. See picture above!

6. Now you are ready to finish folding the box. Open the sides you cut and lift the triangle over the box sides to make the box. Repeat for the other side. You may want to glue the interior triangles down. This completes the box.

7. If you would like the box to have a lid, repeat the entire process above using 8 X 8 inch paper. The larger paper makes the lid and the smaller one fits inside the lid. You can do this with fabric, wallpaper, recycled gift wrapping and with larger paper squares for larger boxes. Perfect for small gifts, gift card holders, organizers and for 3-dimensional collage support.