Homemade Card Box

While I was procrastinating on my Save The Dates, I came across this great site with some easy DIY wedding projects, called Do It Yourself Weddings. And since I think there's nothing better than finding a great project and making it your own, I promptly bookmarked the site and ordered my fabric to make a custom card box. (for those of you that need explanation [Ryann!], a card box is used to store cards on the gift table, so they don't go missing if they were just placed on the table. Plus, it makes a cute centerpiece for the table too!)

To start this project, I ordered some fabric from Joann.com and FashionFabricsClub.com, and headed to Michael's (yet again, I swear, since this wedding planning began it hasn't been more than 2 weeks between trips there....but I've finally figured out where most things are in the store!). There wasn't much in the way of paper mache boxes at Michael's, but they did have a whole aisle of expensive-ish hat boxes. But not much in the way of square boxes, mostly rectangles. So I only bought one round hat box and headed back home to scower our garage, which is about 1/4th full of random empty boxes. I was looking for a second, smaller, round box, and two square boxes, since my plan was to do a 4 tier box that resembled a cake. You might remember this PhotoShop mock up from an earlier post:Well, I wasn't able to find two square boxes that were the right size, so I ended up cutting up other boxes and painstakingly refolding them and taping them, so they would be the right size. I also found a small round box that was from a Victoria's Secret Pink gift set that would work perfectly for the top layer. After hand making the boxes I stacked them up and this is what they looked like. Not exactly the prettiest boxes, but hey, they were going to be covered!
As you can probably tell, the box that is second from the top will be where the cards go in. I cut the bottom of the boxes out below there, leaving a small lip for gluing, so the cards will fall into the bottom box. Next, I got started on the CARDS letters, since at this point I was still waiting for my fabric to arrive. I got a purple wood paint marker from Michael's and colored the wood letters, but it didn't turn out the right color, it was really more of a dusty pink.
So after letting the letters dry, I decided to try some dark purple glitter. Using regular scrapbooking glue, I carefully sprinkled the letters with the glitter. I had to do this in two steps, letting it dry overnight, so I was able to hold the letters without smearing the glue. Using a paper plate was super useful to catch the glitter.
After finishing the letters, it was time to start attaching the fabric to the boxes. I am NOT a fan of hot glue guns, unlike Miss Star, as I seem to get a serious burn each time I use them. And of course this time was no different.

Using sewing pins, I started by pinning the fabric to the box, much like you would wrap a present with wrapping paper.

Then I carefully lifted up the fabric and started gluing. (all the pins sticking into the box make it look more like a torture device than a pretty card box!)

After carefully gluing the fabric to all four boxes, I had to cut out the slot for the cards, which I did with and X-Acto knife, and then pulled the flaps inside the box, using first glue and then some box tape to secure it.

This is where I got my first and worst glue gun burn, from holding the fabric around the slot, the glue squished out and gave me this on my finger:

But what could I do but continue with the ribbon! I did a strip around the top of each of the four tiers and then I thought the card slot needed something else (and cause it wasn't quite even enough after the burn fiasco), so I did a border of ribbon around the slot too.
I hope the slot ends up being big enough for standard sized cards. Here is a reference to the size:

Next I added some pearl stickers to the purple satin ribbon, and added the silk hydrangeas to the top of the top tier.

And finally I glued all the layers together and glued on the CARDS letters.


(yes, that is Cat Deeley on my TV, I find that a good dose of So You Think You Can Dance and chardonnay makes any DIY project much more fun!). And here is a close up of the pretty dark purple fabric on the bottom layer, since you can't see it very well in the above picture.
And one last shot, looking down at the box, so you can see the layers (don't mind my table covered with wedding project crap and the glue gun extension cord!)
So there you have it, one wedding card box! And here is the breakdown of the supplies I used:

- About 1 yard of green fabric, on sale for $24.99 a yard (I bought more because I'll be using it on another project.
- Light Orchid 3/4" ribbon, $1.99
- Sparkle Crepe Floral Eggplant fabric, $4.95 a yard
- 3 yards of 1/2" Taffeta ribbon, $0.45 a yard
- 1 yard of Purple Crinkled Chiffon, $4.75 a yard
- Ultra Fine Transparent Glitter in Purple Passion, $4.40
- 1 package of pearl stickers, $4.87
- 1 round hat box, $12.99
- Wood letters, $0.99 each
- Wood marker, $3.99
- Silk hydrangeas, $7.99 for package of 6 bunches
- Scissors, already had
- Glue gun and glue, already had
- Other boxes, already had

Grand total = $77.22

However, I do have a lot of fabric left over, since I wasn't really sure how much I'd need I just bought in full yards. I also have a lot of orchid ribbon, stickers and glitter left over, but am counting the full price I paid for everything here. And of course, if I'd chosen cheaper green fabric, or done it with wrapping paper, this project would have been a lot less expensive too. But I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Are you planning to make a card box or other type of container to hold your cards?

(all photos in this post were taken by me)