DIY: Card Box

Okay guys, I was saving this for tomorrow, but some of you may be bored by my latest webpage series.  So I'm going back to my roots for this one.  Ha!  But seriously..

I'm not sure if I shared what I was originally thinking of for a card box or not.  I can't seem to find it in any old posts, so I'm guessing it was one of those things I meant to do, and then never got around to, which by the way, happens way too frequently in my life.  Either way, I have a new plan.

But just for those of you that may be curious, here's what I was planning on doing.

(source)

I even went as far as adding the DIY tutorial link to my favorites and buying four 8x10 frames from Hobby Lobby on sale for $30 total.  But then I moved into a house in MN this summer and put the picture frames up on the wall, and I just didn't feel like taking them back down.

So while I wandering around Hobby Lobby last week, lusting after Christmas decorations two months too soon, I came across some square and round boxes that would be perfect for a card box.  I stood in the aisle for a good ten minutes just staring at them trying to figure out if that's what I wanted to do.  Seriously.  This same worker walked past me like four times and I'm sure he thought I was a complete idiot.  But then I realized they were 50% off of already cheap prices, so my mind was made up.  So then I stood there for another 5 minutes trying to decide between round and square, (I went with 3 different sizes of round) and then went back to the fabric section and picked out some material to cover them with.

I forgot to take a picture of all the boxes before starting, but you'll get the idea when you see the finished product.

Step-by-step tutorial

1.  Cut a hole in the bottom of the top box, about an inch from the outside edge.  I just used a utility knife I found in my mom's tool box because I couldn't find a fancy shmancy X-acto knife in our collective craft supplies.  It worked just fine afer I switched out the old blade.

2.  Take the lid off, flip it over on top of the middle box, and trace the circle you just cut out.  Make sure you have it centered first!

3.  Now cut out along that line.

4.  Then you flip over the middle box, and cut out a hole in the bottom about an inch from the outside edge just like you did with the bottom of the top box.

5.  Now flip the middle box over and trace this hole onto the top of the bottom box.

6.  Cut out that hole.

7.  Now it's time for the slot on the top of the top box.  I cut out a circle the same size as the top from newspaper to make a template.  I had first tried finding the center of the lid and measuring out this way and that, but it just didn't work.  So if you fold the newspaper circle in half and half again, you can find the center and easily cut out a slot.  I don't have a measurement for this, but I went off of a card I found laying around the house.  I designed it so the card would be placed in vertically.  Make sure it is wide enough for a thick card to fit through after you cover it with material.

You can see all the lines I attempted making on the lid before I made the newspaper template.

8.  Trace the slot onto the lid and cut it out.

I originally bought three boxes with the intention of having it go three-high, and then I got home and thought I would only use the top two because it seemed bigger than in the store.  But then when I started to wrap the two boxes, I realized it was, in fact, not big enough and I really did need the third box after all.  So it was a little bit of trial and error, you'll just have to see what size works best for you.  I would rather have too much room in it than not enough since we're inviting 300+ guests.

9.  Now you need to wrap the boxes with material.  I wrapped the middle with the lid in place.  The top box I wrapped separately from the lid so it would be a cleaner look fitting the material through the slot.  The bottom box I also wrapped separately from the lid, so that I can take the bottom off and get the cards out at the end of the night instead of reaching through the top two boxes.

Here's another learning place: I had planned on placing the box on the center of a large circle of material and gathering it up and into the center so there would be a ruching effect, but I didn't like it as much as I thought.  So I took a long strip of fabric, that was wider than the box laying on its side and glued the short edge along the side of the box.  Then I rolled the box down the length of the fabric, folded it under, and glued the end at the starting point.  With the box on its side, there was extra fabric at the top and bottom.  I took this and pulled it tight, gluing it to the inside of the box.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, because I was too busy burning a few fingers in the process.  So hopefully my explanation makes sense, but feel free to ask me if it doesn't.

Right now I haven't attached the boxes to each other because I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it.  I'm thinking about velcroing the layers together so it can be taken apart easily for storage, and shipping it if I can sell it after the wedding.  So right now the layers are just sitting on top of each other looking pretty.

I did add a bow, using my super fantabulous Bow Making Tutorial to the bottom layer to hide where the box and the lid meet, so no one can tell that it comes apart.

Right now I'd say it's about 90% finished, I just need to decide what other finishing touches to add and possibly incorporate my chartreuse green color. I had thought about painting some wooden letters to spell out "CARDS" but I think I want to keep this simple and not clutter it up too much.  I'll probably just add a sign that will match my table numbers.

Price Breakdown

Lg. Box (50% off @ 9.99) = $4.99

Md. Box (50% off @ 8.59) = $4.29

Sm. Box (50% off @ 6.59) = $3.29

Fabric = $2.99

Fabric = $4.49

Fabric = $4.19

Ribbon (already had)

Hot glue gun and glue (already had)

Utility knife (already had)

Total = $24.24

FYI:  I used a yard of material for the bottom box, 3/4 yard for the middle box, and a yard for the top box.  I got extra for the top because most of the top was covered and I just wanted to be safe.  It ended up being pretty perfect, there wasn't much left over from the bottom two boxes, and I probably could have gotten away with 3/4 or less for the top box.

So as you're getting to know, I change my mind ALL the time.  Do you have any projects that started out as one thing, and turned into something completely different by the time you were finished?