Free milk carton SVG files

How the roof folds

A milk carton is a square box with four roof panels above its walls. The front and back roof panels lean in until their ridge strips meet. Each side roof panel has two diagonal folds that run from its bottom corners to the middle of its top edge: push the middle of that panel inwards and it folds along them, into the box, as the roof closes. Fold all of these lines both ways before gluing anything.

Glue the long side tab first, then the base on to its three tabs, fill the carton, and close the roof last: tie ribbon through the holes in the ridge, or glue or staple it. For the roof to close at all, each roof panel must be longer than half the depth of the carton. On the plain carton the roof panels are 30 mm long over a carton 50 mm deep, which lifts the ridge fold 17 mm above the walls.

Sizes and card

The files are 100 mm on their longer side, so scale them up before cutting. The plain carton, cut 210 mm wide, is 50 mm square and 75 mm tall to the eaves, and its sheet is 210 by 167 mm, which fits A4 or Letter card. The widest sheet is the pair of mini cartons at 265 mm and the tallest the slim carton at 185 mm; both still fit A4 or Letter.

Card of 200 to 250 gsm folds cleanly along the diagonal lines; board over 300 gsm fights back and springs the roof open. These are boxes for dry gifts such as sweets, biscuits in a bag, bath salts or a small toy. They are not liquid tight, whatever the shape suggests.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions