CD box tutorial

My mom is just impossible when it comes to gifts. She never wants anything and if I buy her something she gets disappointed that I wasted money. That's why I've learned to give her gifts that don't cost much, but look gorgeous. You would think that is easy, just give her something I've made. The problem is that she is not a fan of "home-made" stuff and if I give her a piece of jewelry for instance she never wears it. She might think it's pretty, but not for her to wear. (Don't ask - I don't know.) Soooo, it's a bit complicated, but she likes movies, so this year I'm sending her a box full of DVD's. I already had the perfect card for her and I wanted to make a matching holder for the DVDs.

Hope it makes sense and you'll find it useful. I've measured in centimeters (cm), but the tutorial is mostly to show how you can make your own box, not necessarily this one. And in worst case you can translate the centimeters into inches here. Sorry about the messy pics. Wasn't planning on making a tutorial at first or I would have cleaned the table up a bit ;) If you click the pic you will get a very big one and can see all the details.

I almost always make my own patterns. That way I can make them fit the gift perfectly. For this box I could measure so the exact amount of DVDs fit in and nothing "shakes around". I think it fits about 15 DVDs and some wrappingpaper.

I measured how much I needed for a DVD by laying it out on my 12x12" cardstock. I needed some extra space on the sides of the DVD and decided on 13cm width:

I cut the cardstock to be 13cm wide. I wanted the box to be square, so each side will be 13cm (back and front) For the bottom I took some of the DVDs I wanted to fit and added some extra cm. I made the bottom 2cm. I also added 1 cm to the edges so they can be folded in and will leave a nicer edge (no papercuts when you take out the DVDs)

Here's how it looks when I have folded the piece. So the folds are (on a 13cm wide piece of cardstock): 1cm, 13cm, 2cm, 13cm, 1cm. Glue down the outer flaps. Now the piece is 13-2-13cm



Decorate the front and back now (trust me, it's easier to do this now especially if you want to add eyelets. Guess how I know?) If you add eyelets and will use this box for CDs or DVDs, make sure to protect the inside of the box so the DVDs don't get scratches.

Now the fold for the sides - you are going to need two: They are going to be folded a couple of times and need some extra cm for glue. I added extra 2cm on each side, so the piece is 6cmx13cm. Are you with me?


Next I folded the piece lengthwise. I folded it first in the middle (on 3cm) then every cm, so I get 5 folds. The two outer ones will have glue on them. I don't think it matters which way you have the folds, but I made it so there are two folds on the inside of the box and one on the outside.


Put glue on one of the outer flaps and glue down on the inside front of the box.



It should look like this:

I then glued the second piece to the other side.

I made a flap to close the box with (to cover the opening) I decided I wanted it to fold 5cm over the front. And then 2cm to match the bottom width and some extra centimeters to glue to the back (I took 4cm) So a piece (5+2+4cm) 11x12cm (so it's a little on the inside of the box). Glue the 4cm wide part to the back of the box.

I also made an extra fold on the 2cm wide part so it wouldn't break if there were fewer DVDs in the box at a later time


I then glued the folded sidepieces to the back of the box.

This is how the box should look now:


I had some fabricflowers that had a couple of spots on them, so I added glitterglue to cover them up. I then found some primaflowers and a brad to match the colors of the box.

I also found a great metal charm I've had for years. I decided the flap of the box would be held together with a ribbon.

Finally I added the flower to the flap and voilá! One gift ready. The ribbon will be a little tighter to hold the flap down.


Hope you liked this tutorial and that it wasn't too hard or easy. If you find it useful, please let me know. I would be so happy knowing that I have helped in some way.