How to Make Bouncy Boxes

I want to show you how to make bouncy boxes and make all your cards exciting! I first saw these boxes as a pop up in Christmas cards at Walmart but they stayed in the card. Then Crafters Companion made some on HSN Craft Day that flew around. I dug out the Christmas card I bought and figured out how to make them with Cricut.

Watch the video above and you will see just how great they are. The video was filmed with my phone. I am very sorry about the size of some of the pictures. I am still learning to film with my phone.

You will need:

- - - medium heavy cardstock
    - Liquid glue
    - Rubber Band
    - Scissors
    - Download File

Paper Choice

You can make these boxes out of heavy cardstock or medium cardstock. Don’t use anything less that 65 lb weight. They tend to warp out of shape if the paper is too thin. The bigger you make them, the heavier the weight needs to be. I made some really large ones from glitter paper and they worked well. (They made the dog bark. I wish I had video of that.)

You can use the same paper for both pieces or choose different papers. I prefer one paper for each box.

Cutting the Bouncy Boxes

If you want a different size, make sure you change both boxes equally otherwise the boxes wont fit together. Remember, the bigger you make it, the heavier the paper needs to be. I wouldn’t go much smaller though unless you have really tiny fingers.

A Word about the Rubber Bands

Before we get started on how to make bouncy boxes, I need to take about the rubber bands a little. Thin bands work better and the bigger the circumference the better. I had some really good thick rubber bands and had to cut and shape the ends because they wouldn’t go through the hole. But then I bought big cheap ones from the Dollar Store and they worked much better.

Assembling the Bouncy Boxes

Now on to how to make bouncy boxes. Start by re-creasing all the score lines on both pieces. Look at the first picture below to see how. Make sure the holes are lined up well. Now glue one tab to the other piece. You can see how in picture 2. Cut the rubber band so you have a long piece. Then thread one end of the rubber band through the holes at one end of the piece and tie a double knot. Trim the extra.

Now thread the other end of the rubber band through the holes at the other end. The rubber band should be about the length of one side after you get it tied off. This give the box its bounce. You may have to experiment with how tight you tie the band off. The tighter it is, the more spring the box has.

Now comes the difficult part of making the box.

If you can have someone hold the box down it will help, but you CAN do it yourself. The fifth picture shows you how to hold down the box and fold in the flaps, or as Cordelia named them, the chicken wings. Fold in the corners and the tabs on them up. Put glue on the tabs and fold the end of the box over. It is very important that they line up perfectly. Then repeat the process at the other end.

Once you have both ends folded over, glue the tab that is left under the other side. If you look at the last picture, you would tuck the black side under the red. Keep your box flat until the glue sets.

The bouncy boxes will pop up as soon as you let go of them.` Pinch them down and they go flat.

And now you know how to make bouncy boxes! Enjoy

Now What?

Now you know how to make bouncy boxes but what do you do with them? You can put them inside almost any card. You may need a card band to keep it closed until your victim is ready to open it. And the two cards in the videos are going to be part of the blog probably next week.
Also Design Space has a free project of a matchbox that you can put them in. It is in the video too, but I didn’t put it in the download files. Sorry.