FREE Minecraft Chest Template with Mini Notes

• If You Don't Have All the Materials: I highly recommend using all of the materials listed, because it makes it look significantly nicer. However, you can get by with just white cardstock and no black paint.
• If You Want to Make This Gift Easier: Take out the pickaxe and instead of making an incision for each mineral block, leave the last flap uncut and unglued so that it becomes a regular box.
• I highly recommend using a thin sheet of cardboard for this project. It will be much easier to work with. However, if you're like me and don't have any thin cardboard on hand, I take a large sheet of standard cardboard and run over the entire sheet with the handle of my scissors. This smashes the cardboard down a bit and makes it easier to work with.
• Cardboard can be difficult to measure and cut because of it's rugged texture, so one trick I use is cutting out the shape on copy paper first (included in the template). Then, I loosely tape this onto a sheet of cardboard with double sided tape, cut the shape out, fold where marked, and then just remove the copy paper!
• Make sure to paint the edges of the cardboard too! The edges of the cardboard will stick out when you open and close the chest.
• When gluing the print-outs to the cardstock and box, make sure to apply glue liberally so that all edges and corners are glued properly and wait for it to dry before handling. Gluing the edges and corners will go a long way in making it look professional and waiting for it to dry will ensure that all pieces remain centered (I was impatient and didn't wait, so some of my pieces are crooked).
• My hot glue gun is always my absolute best friend when it comes to cardboard! They're the best and most convenient adhesive.
• The mineral blocks fit just perfectly into the chest, so you might need to wiggle them around a bit to close the chest.
• The pickaxe, by far, was the most difficult part. I found it easiest to use an art knife for the more intricate parts, but this still took some time and patience. If cardboard is too difficult to work with, you could just substitute it with layering cardstock over and over until you reach the desired thickness. OR you can just take out the pickaxe all together.

Happy gifting!