If you've taken the "Buy Handmade" challenge this year why stop there?  Inspired by Doug's post last year about turning a cereal box into an eco-friendly gift box, I endeavored to make a pillow box this year.

With just some scissors, a ruler and a ceral box I was able to make a decent cardboard pillow box.  The shape and structure of it came out great, but truth be told, my decorating was a bit uninspired as you can see below.  Upon looking for picture that better shows the potential for someone with a little more creativity in the decorating department I found a great tutorial on ehow.com.

The one on the right is supposed to be snowflakes ;o)

You can either download the patterns I made below or do it MacGuiver style with an old CD as a stencil as described in the ehow tutorial.  As far as decorating goes, you can get as creative as you want whether you choose to use a pre-patterned paper or cardboard or choose plain and decorate it with some drawings or stamps.  Finally you can adorn it with some old ribbon or twine.

Patterns...

click to enlarge

Small Pillow Box:

This 6in x 6in paper makes a pillow box that is roughly 4 inches x 2 3/4 inches.  Just cut on the solid lines and fold on the dotted lines, then glue the tab.

If you are using thick paper, any glue will do, but if you are using cardboard you may need something a little stronger than Elmers.  Also, if you are using carboard I recommend pre-bending it before you glue.

click to enlarge

A Little Bit Larger:

This one is a little larger but will still fit on a regular sheet of paper.  You'll have to make two of these, and follow the instructions above, but since it's two pieces you'll have two tabs to glue.