I am so excited to share this DIY bottle carrier with you! Honestly one of the most fun projects I’ve envisioned! It actually turned out better than I had hoped.

The Back Story

A few Christmases ago, I needed some bottle carriers. I had purchased some fun soda pop flavors that I was gifting, but didn’t have a good way to wrap them. I looked around the internet a little, but couldn’t find a good template I liked or anything to purchase.

And my curious little brain started thinking. Is it possible to make a DIY bottle carrier from gift boxes?

I pulled out some stashed gift boxes and was amazed to find that the dimensions worked perfectly!

Below you will find the directions for the DIY bottle carrier that I created.

The Gift Box

Not sure how I stumbled upon the perfect size gift box on the first attempt. Here are the important things to note when choosing gift boxes.

You need to have size Extra-Large gift boxes. This is also a Robe Size and measures 11x17x2.5 inches. Using this size ensures that you have minimal cutting and that the folds are already in the correct places.
Choose an all-over pattern rather than a picture design. You don’t want half of Santa’s face or half of a Christmas tree showing on the front. White also works fine.
You need three box halves for one carrier or 1 1/2 boxes. One top or bottom for each side and one for the handle.

The Materials

Basically you need

your boxes
something to cut with
glue
tape
a ruler
Christmas cards (optional)

I used scissors to cut during the entire project. But an X-acto knife would probably work better for cutting out the handle.

Use a nice strong glue like Aleene’s Tacky Glue. You need something stronger than Elmer’s for this project.

I used three types of tape for this project. Duct Tape because it’s super strong and with lots of sticky staying power! Also, electrical tape. This helped to add support within the handle. It’s strong but doesn’t stay stuck like Duct Tape. In some places like this the electrical tape was best because it is thin. You could also cut your Duct Tape if you don’t have electrical tape on hand. The final tape was Washi Tape. This was merely decorative and helped finish off the cut edges with a little bit of charm.

You’ll be measuring and folding along a ruler edge so have one handy.

I decorated the white boxes with a recycled Christmas card. Works well, but strictly optional.

Carry With Care

Although I made this DIY bottle carrier as sturdy as I can, it will not support the weight of six pop bottles for very long. Be sure to support the bottom as you carry this. The weakest part is the handle so you may be able to reinforce this even more than I did to make a stronger carrier. Beer bottles will be shorter than the pictured soda pop bottles, and I’m guessing may weigh less as well.

DIY Bottle Carrier from Gift Boxes

Yield: 1 carrier

This carrier works for pop bottles or beer size bottles. It is for gift wrapping and decorative purposes only.

Materials

3 extra-large (robe size) gift box tops or bottoms, 11x17x2.5”
tacky glue
duct tape
electrical tape (optional)
washi tape, for decorating (optional)
christmas cards, for decorating

Tools

scissors
ruler
X-acto knife, optional

Instructions

Lay box tops or bottoms out flat, separating corners.
Outer Sides: Take one box top or bottom and trim off one of the long folds. This edge will now be the top. Save trimmed piece from your first side for Step 9. (Discard trimmed edge piece on 2nd outer side.)
Working on the back side, find the exact horizontal center (11") and mark this with a pencil. Measure out 4 inches on either side and mark. Repeat this again farther down on the box.
Draw 2 vertical lines connecting your outer marks. This is the 8” wide side and the bottom of your six pack carrier.
Measure 5 ½ inches down from the top along both vertical marker lines. Draw a new horizontal line connecting your two markings.
Trim away the large lower corners along these lines leaving the vertical lines intact above the horizontal line. Save the outer corners for Step 21.
Trim the remaining piece along the bottom fold and side folds. Discard bottom piece.
Fold inward along lines. Use the edge of a ruler to guide your folds if needed.
Create a measuring guide. Take one of the upper pieces that was trimmed away, measure and cut to 5 ¼ inches. Fold the 5 ¼" length exactly in half. Discard the remaining pieces from the trimmed upper piece.
Use your measuring guide folded in half to measure out from the side lines that you folded. Mark with pencil and then fold inward.
Repeat Steps 2-10, skipping Step 9 on the 2nd outside box top or bottom or simply trace around piece one for a guide.
Attach sides together. Glue one bottom piece on top of the other.
Center handle: With remaining box top or bottom, trim away long folded sides. Discard cut away pieces. Fold in half into a square, inside out.
Measure 3” in and cut so that your remaining piece in 8” wide.
Either mark 3 inches down from the fold (top) or mark using a completed side piece as a guide. This mark is the top outer edge of your handle base. You can draw your handle design or make a template on paper.
Cut out handle. This is best with an Exacto knife, but if you're lazy like me, use a kitchen knife or pocket knife to punch out a hole in the center of the handle and then cut it away with scissors.
You can reinforce the handles using more tape inside the handles.
Turn center handle piece right side out.
Glue lower flaps of the center piece into the bottom of the carrier being careful to fit it into the exact center. Reinforce with tape.
Fold in side pieces and attach flaps to center piece with glue and tape.
Dividers: Take the leftover cut corners. Lay them so that the pieces are tall (the longest length is vertically oriented), then fold in sideways at the crease. Trace along thinnest edge and cut away to smaller size so that both long edges are the same width. Do this with all four corners.
Glue edge tabs together to form half a box shape.
Tape, glue or simply set these into the box carrier to divide your bottles.

I’d love to hear how this idea worked for your gift wrapping! Be sure to leave comments and love below.

Blue Sun Soda Shop

And if you’d like to shop for fun soda pop flavors like the ones I have here, be sure to head over to Minnesota’s Blue Sun Soda with shops in Bloomington, Spring Lake Park, and Stillwater. You can skip the trip and order some of their great flavors online, but in store shopping has an even greater collection. Like Cucumber, Black Olive and Enchilada. Or Mini Doughnut, Kettle Corn, Peanut Butter, Red Hot, Banana Nut, Rocket Bomb Pop, Cinnamon, Boysenberry Pie, Coffee Cake, Bacon, Waffles and Syrup, Dill Pickle, Spaghetti, Blue Cheese Dressing and Marshmallow, to name a few!