It’s A Wrap: DIY Mini Milk Cartons

Last year, I came up with a tutorial for packaging halloween candy. I wanted to make it an annual thing, so I tried to figure out how these mini milk cartons were made. No printables. No exact measurements. Mostly freehand scoring, snipping and gluing. DIY milk cartons!

For this project I used fairly sturdy cardstock (~65lb/175gsm). This particular sheet is 8.5 x 11 inches.

I cut it in half, crosswise. I’m not known for using exact measurements for my packaging. So long as you start with a rectangular piece, you should be okay.

First, fold a small flap on the short end. This was approximately half an inch wide.

Keeping the flap up, fold the paper in half.

Then, in fourths.

You will now see the basic shape of the carton.

With a ruler (or simply eyeballing it), measure how wide one section is. In this case, it was approximately 2 inches.

Next, fold the long end of your cardstock. The width of the fold should be less than your earlier measurement, but more than half of it. The section of box was two inches wide, so my fold was somewhere between 1 and 2 inches wide.

Cut the bottom sections on your score/fold marks.

Cut out the smallest piece.

Those flaps will serve as the base of the carton.

Next, fold the other long end approximately 2/3’s of the way down. This will be the spout portion of the finished milk carton. Apply pressure when folding this part. This will make things easier later on!

We’ll start putting everything together. Apply glue or stick double-sided tape onto the flap.

Glue or tape the base together as well.

You can taper the edges of your base to add some character.

Once everything is in place, stand the carton upright.

Slowly pinch the top sections towards each other, like in the photo.

It should pucker into a bow-tie like shape.

Fill up with jellybeans, M&Ms or candy corn. Seal with glue or double sided tape!