Turning your Adult Coloring Pages into beautiful Gift Boxes

There are so many adults rediscovering the charm and restorative powers of coloring these days, that it has led to a boom in the publishing market and suddenly you find the shelves stocked with a selection of great coloring books all aimed at adults. The question arises though, what do we do with those beautiful creations after spending all that time coloring them? It seems a shame to leave them hidden away in a book on a shelf somewhere. Yesterday I showed you how to turn the smaller pictures into cards. Today I use a full A4 page and turn it into a beautiful gift box.

When my niece came for a sleepover I pulled out the Art Therapy magazine, a set of 72 Derwent Coloursoft pencils and the Derwent sharpener. These would ensure that the evening was spent having fun.

My 9 year old niece felt a little daunted by the scope of the picture and I agreed that the two of us could color it together. After this first page, she realized that it was not such an arduous task and insisted on doing the next one all by herself.

I was left with this rather mundane page to color and decided to stretch myself a little by not allowing myself to work with my favorite pink and purple ranges.

When the coloring was done, I decided to turn the page into a gift box. I needed an A4 paper, A4 cardboard, pencil, ruler and a Sharpie marker.

I marked off the measurements for the box I was designing from scratch. The measurements were 4,5 cm, 9 cm, 4,5 cm, 9 cm and 2 cm in the length of the paper.

I would be using the full width of the paper and drew the fold lines all the way across at the marked intervals.

I now needed to mark the intervals on the width of the paper. They were from the top: 6 cm, 4,5 cm for the longer sides, and 2 cm in from the sides for the short sides.

I used a pair of sharp scissors to cut out the box.

I then used the ruler to get neat and tidy fold lines.

I tested this paper box to make sure that all the measurements worked out. I was satisfied and continued to make a cardboard master.

I copied the previous steps on a cardboard, knowing that the measurements gave satisfactory results.

I then cut the cardboard template out with scissors.

This tougher cardboard template can be used over and over again to cut more boxes from in future and will be saved for this very purpose. I laid it down on the bottom of my colored page and traced the template.

I used a ruler to connect the fold lines on the traced outline of the box.

It was time to cut out the box pattern.

I once again folded the lines over the ruler to get neat fold lines.

I put adhesive on the right sides of only the short side flaps.

Fold the box, tucking the short side flaps inside the folded box. The result is a very pretty box that can be used to present someone with a very special gift.

The pattern on the back of this particular paper resulted in a very pretty inside for the box as well, with even a space to write the recipients name!

For more crafty ideas and great products, visit APrettyTalent.com.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
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