Surprise the little leprechauns in your life with these adorable Shamrock and Clover paper boxes that you can fill with treats!
Do you like making paper boxes for your small gift-giving? I love making small paper boxes and this week I made shamrock boxes because St. Patrick’s Day is coming up soon. These shamrock boxes will be perfect for some magically delicious gifts for my friends! I made paper treasure boxes for gifts in January for 12th Night and I made paper heart boxes in February for Valentine’s Day. The free cut files for my shamrock boxes are available in my resource library.
The shamrock boxes can be cut by hand or on a craft machine like the Cricut. No matter which method you use, the shamrock boxes are easy to assemble.
Materials and Supplies for the Shamrock Boxes
(This post contains affiliate links to some of the items I used in this project. It just means that you will help to support my blog if you make a purchase after clicking the links. There is no added cost to you! Thank you!)
- Sheets of card stock
- Glue (I use Tacky glue with many of my card stock projects)
- Treats or gifts to fill the boxes
- Designs (available in my free Resource Library)
- Cutting tools
- A craft machine such as the Cricut, or
- X-Acto knife (or similar) or scissors
How to Make a Shamrock Box
There are two different designs for the shamrock boxes. One is a 4-leaf clover and one is a 3-leaf clover. My resource library contains .SVG, .DXF, and .PDF files for both designs.
In addition to the two files for the actual shamrock boxes, there are also two more corresponding files for the box-top insert and a matching clover shape (for optional embellishments to the shamrock boxes). These will look nice cut from contrasting or complementary colors. These box top inserts are a good way to use your scraps!
Cutting the Shamrock Boxes by Hand
Use the designs in the PDF in my resource library and print directly onto your card stock using the manual feed (to keep your card stock from curling too much in the printer). Cut on the solid lines and score on the dashed lines.
If your printer will print onto longer paper (most do by using the manual paper feed) then you can take a 12″ x 12″ sheet of card stock and cut it down to 8-1/2″ x 12″ and tell the printer that you are using a custom size sheet. The PDF is already set to a 8-1/2″ x 12″ paper size.
Cutting the Shamrock Boxes by Machine
Download the ZIP file and unzip it. There are files in both .SVG and .DXF for both boxes plus the inserts and extra clover embellishments (optional).
Upload the .SVG to Cricut Design Space (or the appropriate file type for your brand of craft machine and application).
- If you do not have a scoring tool, you will need to hide the scoring layer then manually score those lines after you cut the shamrock boxes. In Cricut Design Space, to hide the layer, select the layer then click the eye on that layer
- If you do not want the clover cut out, hide that layer.
If you have a scoring tool, select the layer that has the score lines then change them from cut lines to score lines. In the screenshot below, I show you which part of the design contains the score lines for the shamrock boxes. After changing the scoring layer from cut to score, remember to select the whole design and click “Attach” so the scores happen where they are supposed to happen.
How to Assemble the Shamrock Boxes
Now we get to the fun part! I will walk you through how to put together your shamrock boxes with step-by-step instructions and pictures.
Step 1: Add the Box-Top Insert
The design files include a shape you can cut to glue to the inside of the top of the shamrock boxes. For the 3-leaf clover it is a hexagon and for the 4-leaf clover it is an octagon. This insert shape is just slightly smaller than the actual box shape so it fits nicely.
The insert is placed under the cut-out for some added decoration. Optional insert materials include:
- Contrasting color card stock or paper
- Vellum
- Tissue paper
- Light-weight fabric (such as quilting cotton)
- Acetate
- Foil
- Lace or tulle
Apply a little bit of glue along the outside edge of the interior side of the cut design portion of the shamrock box. Affix the insert to the glue and let it set for a few seconds.
Step 2: Folding the Score Lines
Fold along each of the score lines – folding each toward the inside of the shamrock box. If you did not use your craft machine to score the fold lines for you, you can look at the PDF to know where to manually make score lines (all the dashed lines) then fold along these.
Your creases do not need to be “sharp.” You do not need to crease them with a hard tool. I used a medium weight card stock (65-pound) for my shamrock boxes. If you used much heavier card stock (in the 100-pound range) you may need a firmer crease.
Step 3: Glue the Bottom of the Shamrock Box to the Walls
The pattern for the shamrock boxes is made up of the box top, the box bottom, and the walls all connected as a single piece. The walls are the long rectangular section between the top and bottom of the box.
One end of the wall has a flat end with a couple of slots and the other end has a curved tab for inserting into the slots (for closing the “door” of the box).
The wall sections have tabs for gluing to the top and bottom of the shamrock box. Attach the bottom of the box to the walls by applying glue to all of the wall tabs EXCEPT the tabs that are on the “door” section. The door section is made of of both the section with the slots and the section with the curved tab.
Curve the wall around, holding the tabs in place until the glue begins to set. It is easiest to work with one or two sections as a time. You can see in this picture that I started with just two wall sections.
Step 4: Glue the Top of the Shamrock Box to the Walls
Again, only apply glue to the tabs that are not part of the door of the box. If you close the door by inserting the curved tab into the slots then the box will be structurally more secure and you can do all of the top tabs at the same time.
Then fold the top of the box onto the tabs and hold as the glue sets.
After a few seconds, you can open the door and reach in with a finger to push the tabs into the top of the box to help secure them better.
Step 5: Optional Embellishments for the Shamrock Boxes
While the shamrock boxes are technically complete at this time and ready to be filled, you can take this opportunity to embellish the boxes even more, if you like.
- Glue on some gold beads or sequins
- Curve the leaves of another clover and add it on top of the cutout
- Attach other cutout shapes that you have saved from other projects
- Add washi tape around the walls
- Be creative!
Step 6: Fill the Shamrock Boxes with Treats
The last step is to fill your shamrock boxes with treats or small gifts. I filled mine with candies that were wrapped in shiny gold wrappings.
Select From All My DIY Boxes
I enjoy making little handmade boxes for gifts and treats. You can try some from this list of all the DIY boxes I have made:
- Square Paper Boxes
- Paper Treasure Chests
- Cupcake Boxes
- Heart Boxes (one of my most popular!)
- Shamrock Boxes
- Woven Paper Baskets
- Easter Bunny Boxes
- Kentucky Derby Party Favor Boxes
- Cinco de Mayo Mini Piñatas
I hope you have fun making more of these adorable gift boxes!
You can get the pattern to this and all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.
Remember to pin this to your favorite DIY and/or crafting board on Pinterest!
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