Santa Belly Gift Box

This cute guy was designed (by Lori Whitlock) as a “belly lantern” (with cut out panels backed with vellum for the belly), but I changed it up a bit with solid panels to make it a gift box.

Santa is 9 inches tall, with a 3 inch sphere (inside) for his belly. The panels that create the round “belly” are attached with tabs (and not glued) so they are easily removed. (As I mentioned, I made this to hold a small gift, but a battery operated tea light would go inside if it were made as a lantern.)

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If all of the panels and circular pieces are removed, it folds flat for storage (or mailing if the recipient would like to reassemble him!).

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I cut all the pieces with my Silhouette, but an svg file is also available for purchase.

There is an assembly tutorial that shows how to create the belly portion of this project. I used the photo to see how the rest of the pieces went together. (There are several designs, but assembling the belly portion is the same for all of them.) Besides the card stock, I used the “Dainty Diamonds” embossing folder from Stampin’ Up to add texture to his belly, and I created the belt and fur on the embossed panel myself as these were not included in the file.

Thanks for checking out my post!