Have you ever seen these ah-mazing surprise boxes that open and unfold the moment you take the lid off? I recently spotted the idea on my Instagram explore page and of course I haven’t been able to find the Reel since, but I’ll definitely link it here if I come across it again.

The idea is simple – surprise boxes are gift boxes that sort of “self-open” to reveal all kinds of fun goodies the moment you remove the lid. They’re SO. MUCH. FUN.

I made the kids each one for Valentine’s Day and kind of went with a self-care theme, but you could make them for any occasion – a birthday, a graduation, a wedding shower, or anything else! Make surprise boxes for your kids, your partner, a friend, a parent, or anyone else! You can also make them as big or as small as you like and fill them with less expensive gifts or more luxurious items. Anything goes, really.

Here is how to make your own surprise box at home…

You’ll need:

(the following lists contain affiliate links)

• -2 boxes with lids, one smaller than the other (you want them to fit inside one another with a little bit of space in between – I found mine at Dollarama)
• 4 larger gifts (the thinner / flatter the better)
• 4 smaller gifts (the thinner / flatter the better)
• 1 small square or circular gift (doesn’t have to be thin / flat, but needs a flat bottom)
• strong tape or mounting squares (I love these mounting squares – they make the job really easy and they’re super sticky)
• scissors or a utility knife

Here’s exactly what I included in my kids’ surprise boxes this time:

• Animalz sheet masks
• zazubean Valentine’s chocolate bars
• iChoc chocolate bars
• big bags of Pür gum
• cute blemish patches
• individual Spice Dragon Red Chai Herbal Tea bags
• Mindful Mindy rollers from Rascal Remedies
• True Lemon drink packets
• Bob Snail fruit snacks
• mini Lily Lou’s Aromas candles

Here are some other items I think would work well in a Valentine’s / self-care themed box:

• these adorable face masks
• the cutest star shaped pimple patches (or these miracle patches – the packaging is perfect)
• these press-on nails that require no glue (G loves these and they don’t damage her nails)
• That’s It fruit bars (each bar contains a full apple and 12 strawberries and they’re so good!)
• Made Good Strawberry Crispy Squares
• Pür gum packets
• Bear Fruit Rolls in strawberry or raspberry
• Glee Gum
• these freeze-dried strawberries (or these peaches because the branding is cuter!)

Okay, now to make them…  It’s actually not hard at all – gathering up the items I wanted to include was the most time consuming part!

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Using your scissors or utility knife, carefully cut down the seams of both boxes so they fold open and the 4 ‘flaps’ lay completely flat.

They should look like this.  Don’t worry if the edges aren’t completely perfect when done… It doesn’t matter that much.

2. Using mounting squares (or loops of tape), adhere the 4 bigger gifts to the 4 flaps on the bigger box, keeping them as close to the top edge as possible.

3. Now do the same thing with the 4 smaller gifts and the smaller box, centring each object on its flap instead of keeping it close to the top edge.

4. Take your final gift, the small item that doesn’t necessarily have to be flat (mine is the small candle), and use a mounting square or tape loop to adhere it to the centre base spot on the smaller box.

5. Now gather up the four sides of the smaller box, place the lid on to hold everything in place, and tack it to the middle of the larger box using another mounting square or tape loop.

6. Gather up the four sides of the bigger box and place the lid on it to hold everything in place too.

At this point you could very much be done, but I’m a little bit extra and didn’t love the tops of the boxes as they were, so I decided to print off a couple of things to add to the top – a simple ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ I found and customized on Canva and a photo.

I cut these out and just glued them onto the lids of the boxes with a glue stick and that was that!

When finished, the boxes appear to be regular gift boxes and I’m sure the receiver will think nothing of them other than the fact that they probably contain a lovely gift inside…

Of course when they remove the lids, they’ll be in for a SURPRISE, which totally makes the gift!

My plan is to keep the boxes and reuse them again and again to make surprise boxes for different occasions, which will mean it’ll be less work next time!

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