Tutorial Tuesday: Recycled Shipping Boxes

Most of the time, if I'm mailing something smaller than a breadbox, it is going in a cracker box.
I used to just wrap in a paper grocery sack and roll on, but I don't like wasting the materials, and I don't appreciate the added weight. I have to pay to ship that added weight, you know.

So instead, my new technique is as follows.

How to turn a cracker box into a mailer.

 Step One:
Select a box.  I like cracker boxes, because we eat a lot of crackers around here. They're nice in soup, and the toddler enjoys having one for each hand. They're also the perfect size for a Raggedy Rebel or Little Punk.

 Step Two:
Find the box's seam.  In this case, it's right by that blue line, about half an inch from the corner edge.

 Step Three:
Carefully deconstruct the box by gently pulling apart all the glued edges.

 Step Three:
Remind yourself that you need tools. (Yes, I do the deconstruction first, because I now carefully break down any box I think will work well to ship something, toaster pastry boxes, cases of pop... anything. The cases of pop will be it's own tutorial, because it's more complicated.)  I use a pair of scissors and a roll of clear packing tape.

 Step Four:
Locate the end of the tape, tape it to your working surface, and let the tape dangle for easy access later. This whole process is just unpleasant if you have to keep hunting the end of your tape.

 Step Five: Locate any places where you've accidentally abused the packaging creating loose bits, and tape those down.  Be sure to burnish the tape after application.

 Step Six:
Locate the long edge you separated earlier.  roughly fold it into place, then use the edge of your work surface to fold it over, reinforcing the new angle of fold.

 Step Seven:
Overlap the edge to be closed, holding the box in the approximate shape you want it and lay down a small piece of tape for the purposes of allignment.

 Step Eight:
Press the box flat so that the edges you're still joining are in the middle, and tape securely. By shape checking first you're sure to not be missing where you want these to overlap when they're flat. If you skip straight to the flat taping, you run a risk of overshooting and having it not make a very proper square afterward.
Don't forget to burnish the tape.

 Step Nine: Fold in short sides of one open end.

 Step Ten:
Overlap long sides of open end and tape closed.

Step Eleven:

Place item in box, now that it is only open from one end.

Step Twelve:

Repeat steps nine and ten on open end.

Step Thirteen:

Address box, be sure to include return address.

Step Fourteen:

Ship

Step Fifteen:

Giggle that you're giving the doll something to read while in transit.  You know, if dolls could read  in the dark.