Recycled CD craft - Box Tutorial

Recycled CD Box 

I am on a recycling spree and sharing a box made out of CDs. Its a pretty straightforward project but I am nevertheless sharing how I made it for the benefit of those who may not have seen this type of craft. I am a complete " first timer" at many of the crafty stuff I do and this is the main reason I share the tutorials so that anyone making it for the first time like me can benefit from my crafting mistakes and successes!

How to make a Box using CDs

Recycled CDs Craft

I am sure all of us will be having old unwanted CDs lying around the house.And we can never have enough boxes can we? Well especially crafters  need lots of boxes to store stuff right? You can make an easy square box with circular CD lid or if you are feeling more adventurous make a cylindrical box using your CDs.

Materials Required to make a Box using old CDs

CDs- 2

Thick Paper- use thick card stock or recycle a cereal box like I did here

Pretty Paper

White Glue

Recycled CD Craft

Cut some circles the same size as your CD from pretty paper- You need at least 2 to line the top of your CDs.
Cut 2 rectangular strips from your thick card - One wide strip will form the base of your box and one narrower strip which will form the lid- no rules about how wide- anything goes!

I cut the wider strip from the cereal box corner- I placed the cuts such that a narrow strip was on the other side of the box.Cut this narrow strip in a zig zag manner to get strips as shown in the picture. The narrower strip will form the lid and should be longer by about a centimeter.Not giving you any measurements as I worked off hand- If you want to be very exact use a cylindrical bottle or tin on the CD and wrap your card around it to decide on the length of your card strip.

Recycled CD Craft

If you are recycling some cardboard fold and glue some paper over your card strip.Here I wrapped and glued some pink paper over my cereal box strip.

Fold up the zigzag narrow strip

Stick the ends of your strip to get a cylinder.

Tip- if using a lining paper as I did here - you need not overlap you cardstock ends -just overlap the lining paper- this gives a smoother cylinder.Apply glue to the lower part of your folded zigzags as demonstrated my  little assistant.

Recycled CD Craft

Center and stick the zigzags onto your CD.Our cylinder is not a perfect. You can get a neater and better cylinder by being more careful while sticking your zig zags!

Recycled CD Craft

If you wish line the inner part of your CD box base using a circle of paper to hide the zigzags.

In the same fashion make the lid of your Cd box using the longer card strip.

Recycled CD Craft

I stuck some punched flowers between the CD and the patterned paper to give a pink border. You can use lace , ribbons , sequins, shells or whatever you fancy to add a lovely border. I added a handmade flower at the center and here is the tutorial link : Handmade Rose tutorial 

Recycled CD Craft

A flower without leaves looks so bare so hand cut some leaves, embossed it using a round tipped tool [ actually used in parchment craft]. You can use your mouse pad and a used ballpoint pen which has run out of ink].Just run the nib through the center of the leaf and sideways in a slanting manner to make veins.

Leaf Tutorial

Add some hand cut green paper swirls for the stems .

Recycled CD Box

Cut the leaf borders by making small slanting cut on one border

Leaf Tutorial

I found it easiest and fastest to turn over the leaf to cut the other side

Leaf Tutorial

This is the Handcut paper rose leaf.

Leaf Tutorial

I added a bit of glue and gloss to the leaves and flowers to get a glossy sheen-- not well captured in the photos but gives it a lovely "plastic" look! [ I was not generous enough in using the glue and gloss and hence got a lined look which I rather liked- If you want a smoother finish completely cover your leaves with the glue and gloss ]
Edited : Glue N Gloss is currently not available in the Indian Market- you can use Satin Mod Podge for the same effect [Read here : Mod Podge Tips]

Recycled CD Craft

Do tell me how you like this maiden attempt at a CD box- do forgive the imperfections!
Edited: This CD Box tutorial was featured on Mancave & Wonen Den