Merry Boxes - A Project Within a Project

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I was having trouble finding suitable enclosures for the electronic bits of my Connected Xmas Trees project.

I have lots of Altoids tins, but being metal they would not be ideal, likely blocking the WiFi signal of the Wemos controllers.

Then while I was putting away the Christmas decorations on the weekend I noticed a little box a friend had given us some years ago - made out of a Christmas card!

So I thought I'd try that to make the little boxes to hide the electronics for the trees, and have it be somewhat festive at the same time.

Tools and Materials:

* 1 Christmas card to make 1 box

* Clear tape or glue

* Scissors

* Ruler

* Pencil

Step 1: Cut the card in half. We'll use the pretty front of the card for the box lid, and the back for the bottom box.

Step 2: Size the bottom box on the back side of the card. I used an Altoids tin, as that size looks about right for my project.

Step 3: Draw the outlines. The inside lines are the size of the box, so I simply drew around the tin.

I then drew a box, 3/4" bigger on each side, around the outside to make the sides, which will be 3/4" tall.

Step 4: Cut away everything outside of that 3/4" outline

Step 5: Snip the bottom corners on one of the lines of each corner only (see the next pictures for more clarity)

Step 6: Pre-fold on all the lines

Step 7: Fold the sides up and together

Step 8: Tape the corners

Step 9: Make the lid slightly bigger so it's easy to put on and take off. I used the bottom box and marked slightly bigger around it.

Step 10: Repeat steps 3 through 8 to finish the lid. (or is that 6 steps?)

Step 11: Admire the finished Merry Boxes!

The Altoids tin fits!

(You know, in case you want to pretty up an Altoids tin project)

The electronics of my Connected Xmas Trees project will need a little bit of careful placement, but it should work.

The resulting boxes aren't Altoids-tin strong, but should be enough to hold the tree securely.

If you need super strong boxes, start with higher quality cards

Cheers,

-Nico

ps, did anyone notice I didn't use the card from the first picture? I only needed 2 boxes. Maybe I'll still assemble it.

pps, do I get bonus points for the *ahem* clever naming of the boxes being made?

ppps, it's actually a pretty quick project - taking pictures and writing this blog entry took most of the time!

Previous posts:

Connected Christmas Trees

Assembling the Trees

Finally! Two Trees Assembled

Two Trees by a Tree

Connecting the Tree to the Internet

Motion Sensor on Wemos

Trees! one with motion sickness...

Motion Sensor Issues, continued

The Connected Trees are Working!

Next post:

Connected Christmas Trees - Finished!