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.

You don't want to miss this

One of my absolute favourite bloggers Suzy, aka "papermonkey" is having a huuuuge candy for one lucky winner (hopefully me ;)
Suzy is such an amazing talent and she is/has been on a number of designteams. The most recent company she will be making cards and other projects for is sweet'n sassy. Congrats Suzy! I'm amazed - but not at all surprised - at the amount of DT spots she has. You just have to visit her blog and take a look at her gorgeous creations.

Suzy wants to celebrate the gift that is Christmas by spoiling one lucky person totally silly. She has so many goodies from companies like Whiff of joy, house-mouse, magnolia and others. No wonder that she has over 200 entries by now. Make sure to visit her blog and join in. It all ends on dec. 15:th when the lucky winner (me, me, me, lol) will be announced.

Good luck everyone!

Last minute gift tips

I have stopped doing the challenges - I just don't have the time now. I've been struggling with some packages to send out, but I always seem to find something more I have to add. In the end I send them out too late, sigh.

Today I made a tag for a friend that I'm putting together with a bunch of gifts. I can't show it to you yet, but I will as soon as she has gotten the package. I got inspired by Tim Holtz' tags, but not in the way you might think. I just can't make the stupid alcoholinks to work! I made my own variation on a tag - patterned papers and colored images. You'll see what I mean later.

Ok, so some last minute (small) gifts, perfect for the host/hostess:

In Sweden it has been very popular to dress-up matchstickboxes. A good way to give something personal without spending hours on the project. It's also a good when you don't know if you're supposed to bring a gift or not. It's small enough, but you don't have to show up emptyhanded. And the best part is that you can personalize it. Appreciation guaranteed (and if they don't appreciate it you should take it back, lol)




Bookmarks are also one of those small gifts that are always needed. And if you know what kind of books the person reads then you can make it in that style. I'm actually planning on making some. They are perfect to give to guys or people that "don't want anything". These aren't actually done, I was just playing around with my new stamps :D





Other things that don't take forever:
memoryboxes (like the one I have out on etsy)
necklaces/bracelets with beautiful pearls and some organza ribbons
a nicely stamped and decorated tea/coffebag
a decorated box (they can be used for anything)

Now I'm off I have a project to finish tonight. Keep your fingers crossed, because it is something important...

Any interest in hÄnglar?

I know a lot of you are fond of the hÄnglar stamps. Is there anyone who would be interested in buying some from me? I have some totally new that I'm not using. Just putting it out there, maybe someone will be interested...

Thank you card and diving photo

I almost missed this challenge, so I've been up half the night to make a card (well, not only for the card, I've been doing other pre-Christmas things). I really wanted to join this challenge because there is this adorable Sarah Kay stamp to be won.

I have - now - a little box of already colored in images. I found this little angel I colored a couple of days ago. I also found some "Thank you" stickers in my stash. I don't think I've ever done a thank-you card, but thought this image of the angel holding heart-flowers was great for this. Normally I would've used silver with purple, but I had to go with the textcolor. I also applied some goldglitter on her wings. I like the way I took some red color to focus on the flowers. I also put some goldglitter on the flower.

As usual, I'll take a better pic and put it up in the gallery (my slideshow to the right) Speaking of pics: have you seen my profilephoto yet? It's taken during my fiancées birthday trip in august to celebrate his 30:th birthday. We went to Malta to dive with our new certificates we had fought to get during spring/summer. We just made it in time for the trip. On location we fell inlove with the water (at least 6 meters visibility) so we decided to continue on our certificates and take the advanced level. We ended up spending his birthday on 30 meters depth! It was such an experience. This photo of me is taken at about 15 meter's depth. I'm "flying" above a ravine that went down to about 40 meters. It looked like an abyss, dark and deep. I thought maybe the photo would show it, but naturally you can't take that kind of photos with a simple camera. Besides - it was the first time we had a camera under water with us, so I still think it's a great pic.

Candy for this week

There is still much candy to get before Christmas and here's what ends this week:

Jo from UK is having a great candy with papers, stamps and other great stuff. Make sure to sign up for her candy before it closes on dec. 9:th.

Paula has made an amazing fairytalebook and filled it with some presents...the book is so amazing! The winner will be picked on dec. 10:th.

Jude wants you to win a little something for yourself. The mini book-kit she has is great!

Pink gem designs has their cute Mimi&pig stamp as candy. All you have to do is spread the word on your blog and leave a comment on her blog. Candy closes on dec. 13:th.

Izis has a polish blog and she's offering some fabrics, beads and other craftitems. I'm so happy to see that crafting has spread all over the world.

Claire has a big candy consisting of stamps, papers and some other great stuff. She has almost 300 comments, but don't get put off by that. Maybe you'll be the lucky one (although I'm hoping I will be the lucky one ;)

bootifulstampz still has some candy, but this time it's weekly instead of daily. I missed to enter last week, but this week I'm in!

scattycat has a little Chrismas quiz and some awesome things in her candy. Open until the end of the week.

Jennifer has some adorable rubons on her blog that are looking for a new home :) Ends dec. 10:th.

A quick note

I seem to have some fans out there, so I thought I'd let you know what I'm up to. Don't want you to ditch me now, do I? lol.

I've been having a very productive sunday. I noticed that I needed to stop with the challenges (especially those that didn't involve Christmascards) and start on the things that need to be done ASAP.

My mom and I live far from eachother and won't be able to meet for Christmas this year either :( so I'm sending her a little care package. I know, it's usually parents that send carepackages, but in our relationship it's the other way around. She never wants anything, especially if it's expensive, so I'm giving her some DVDs and a couple of chilli truffles that she has never tasted. I always want to give away my present nicely presented, so I made a little box/purse to hold the DVDs. I made it in papers and colors that matches a card I made earlier. (If you're curious I can say it's the blue/purple Penny Black snowtrot card.)

I made photos while I was doing this and hopefully I will be able to make a little tutorial out of it, if you're interested? I like making my own patterns, that way they can look however I want them to and fit exactly.

I also have some packages to send out to my friends. It takes so long to some destinations and I would like for the Christmasgifts to actually arrive for Christmas. I'm always late with those things, but I really have to step up. The biggest problem is usually what to get my friends, but this year I actually have it all figured out. Just need to pack it up and send it. I'm hoping to get those thigs out of the house so I can start focusing on my sweetie's gifts...

Ok, now I'm just rambling on, but what do you expect at 4am?! lol. Nighty night and I'll "see" you tomorrow. I'll have some more candy to share with you for the week.