Butterfly Picnic Basket

Lightbulb moment - what if you made a picnic basket in which the lid was made of pillow boxes? Well, you'd have a hybrid box with lots of lovely storage compartments that looked a bit like a butterfly.Yay! Pillow box wings. My creation is made in a butterfly print to contribute to "the butterfly effect" :)!

Here are your free templates:
ButterflyBox1of2.pdf 
ButterflyBox2of2.pdf 

ButterflyBox.studio3 

Print the Butterfly Box on to white photocopier card 160gsm. You will need two jumbo brads to hold the box together.

Butterfly Box

1 Cut all the pieces out. Make sure you cut into the sides of the box base as indicated. Score the folds with a fine-point embossing tool held against a small metal ruler for the straight lines. 

2 Crease the folds, paying special attention to the curved pillow box folds.  

3 To assemble the pillow box "wings" fold in the flaps and glue the underside of each pocket on to the top. There are two sets of joined wings - the larger wings go on top.

4 Fold the box base. To assemble the box, thread the brad through the holes and fasten inside the box. You have to make a sandwich of the pieces in this order: brad, brad mat, handles, top layer bottom layer, box sides. Pierce the box sides to make a brad holes. Fasten one side, then the other. It is a little bit tricky fastening the second brad inside the box - just take your time. 

5 When the box is assembled, plump up the pillow boxes.

The box looks a bit like a cantilevered sewing box - and filling it with sewing-related bits and bobs is an ideal end use!