Note: This article is intended to supplement my Graphics-Wrapped Chipboard Card Boxes Tutorial. Please reference that tutorial for instructions on building the boxes to apply these wraps to.

So, before I start on this tutorial, I need to make a couple of things very clear. When I design graphics wraps or poker chip stickers or custom boards or any number of custom items, I use Adobe Photoshop (it’s old – CS3 – but still Photoshop). I understand that not everyone has access to that software, so I’m going to do my best to divorce this tutorial from the use of the specific tool, and give people an overview of just the graphic design process for making these wraps. Unfortunately, I can’t teach each of you how to use the software tools you’ll need to do this sort of design work, so hopefully the tutorial itself will be generalized enough that you can do the work in Photoshop or GIMP or whatever design tool you have access to.

I’m going to be honest: I’m not 100% confident in my ability to teach this portion of the process in this way. I’ll do my best, though, and hopefully this will help.

That out of the way, let’s begin.

MATERIALS NEEDED

Everyone wants to have a cool graphics wrap on their new chipboard boxes, with a cohesive image on the sides of the box that matches up in the middle when the lid is on. If you do your measurements properly and follow the instructions I’ve laid out here, everything should line up fine and you’ll have great-looking boxes like the ones in my custom box project.

LET’S GET STARTED

You’ve created a box like the ones in the tutorial I linked above, and now you want to design a graphics wrap for it. The very first step in this process is to take measurements from your completed box and use them to build a template for your wrap.

Always,

Always,

ALWAYS take your measurements from your finished box. Don’t assume you know the sizes of things because you measured them before you assembled the box. First off, you’re virtually guaranteed to miss something. I did. Multiple times. I was a sucker for forgetting about the extra 1.5mm thickness of a piece of chipboard and screwing up my whole wrap because of it.

Plus, the tolerances aren’t all perfect. For example: That tutorial uses a design for a box that has 50mm tall side-walls glued to 1.5mm pieces of chipboard as the base. Ideally, that should mean both the top and bottom halves of the box are 51.5mm tall, for a total box height of 103mm.

And yet almost every box I’ve built is 104mm. Could be mis-cuts, could be thick clumps of dried glue, could be an insectoid alien conspiracy designed to drive me insane. I’m not sure. And I don’t care, because I always take my final measurements from a finished box.

THAT BEING SAID, having standardized the sizes of all of my boxes and built over 40 of them with my standardized measurements, I’m supremely confident in my ability to consistently create boxes that are 75mm wide by 104mm tall. I do, however, still measure the box’s depth before creating the wrap artwork.

TAKING MEASUREMENTS

We’ll be taking our measurements from the 6 Nimmt box we constructed in the linked tutorial, and creating a wrap for the same.

You’ll need to measure 3 surfaces on your box: the top, the long side, and the end. In this particular tutorial the images for opposite sides of the box will be the same, so we will be creating 3 images, not 6. You are measuring the total size of the closed box, not each individual half.

For this particular box, I got the following measurements:

The box, overall, is 75mm wide (side to side) by 104mm tall (bottom to top) by 68mm deep (front to back).

Thus, the measurements for each individual side for the purpose of creating images are:

Top: 75mm wide x 68mm tall
End: 75mm wide x 104mm tall
Side: 68mm long x 104mm tall

For each of these sides, create a separate image at exactly that size using your preferred image editing software.

A note about design: Again, I’m not going to teach you how to be a graphic designer, or how to manipulate the images you put on these sides. That part of the creative process is up to you. For all of my wraps, I used images readily available for free on the internet. The amount of manipulation required to create the images for my boxes varies from “almost none” to “thank god I have an art degree” to “what the actual @$%& was I thinking?”. 6 Nimmt falls in the middle of this scale. All the imagery on this box was already available online, but required a bit of manipulation to make it fit the dimensions of the box properly.

First, create a top/bottom (we’ll refer to this as TOP going forward) image (75mm x 68mm):

You can create different images for the top and bottom of your box, but for expediency’s sake I usually just use the same image.

Then, create a SIDE image (68mm x 104mm):

Last, create an END image (75mm x 104mm):

These three images will be duplicated to comprise the 6 sides of your box.

CREATE A TEMPLATE

If you have the ability to create a template that incorporates guides like Photoshop, do so. Guides are your savior. But even without guides, you can do pretty well just by being very precise about how you line up your images. Just be aware that all of my screenshots here will be from Photoshop, with guides intact, so you’ll see those little blue guidelines that show me where to put stuff.

This is what my Photoshop template looks like:

Since the width of the boxes never changes, I have vertical guides set up for the box width and the side images, and I’ve already added the cut lines. The horizontal guide in the middle is the center of my template, and I use that to position the rest of the horizontal guides once I determine the size of my box. After those measurements are made and I’ve added the guides, the template for an individual box will look like this:

NOTE: At smaller sizes, it may be difficult to see the guide layout in these images. If you enlarge the image they should be visible.

ASSEMBLE YOUR IMAGES

The first stage of assembling your images is fairly straightforward. Since we finished all the measurements previously and created artwork exactly to the right size, we won’t need to do much in the way of cropping or adjusting sizes in the final document. Most of this part of the process is just adding images, then rotating and aligning them. We’ll start with the lid to our box.

IMPORTANT: If you can, make sure that all of these individual parts of the image are on their own layers. It will make some of the editing we need to do later on infinitely easier. I’m going to write this tutorial assuming your editing tool has the ability to work in layers.

First, drop the box TOP image into your template:

Then, grab one of the box SIDE images and drop it into the same document. Rotate the image 90 degrees counter-clockwise, and align the left side of the rotated image (the part of the image that would be toward the top of the box) against the right side of the box TOP image, like this:

In my screenshots, the side image extends past the edge of the document, because of the size of my template. We’ll address this in a moment.

Note: When you’re aligning images like this, even if you have guides, and your software has the ability to “snap” to your guides, always take a second to zoom in to your project and ensure your images are properly aligned, both vertically and horizontally.

Correct:

Incorrect:

Next, duplicate that box SIDE image (or drop a new instance of it into the template), and rotate it 180 degrees, so the “top” edge of the image is now on the right. Align that edge of the box SIDE against the left side of the tox TOP image, opposite the other side, like this:

Lastly, you’re going to do the exact same thing for the END images, only aligning them with the top and bottom of your TOP image like this:

And this:

If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll have an image arranged in a cross, with your FULL side/end images in place. But remember, this wrap image is only going to be used for the top of the box, so some portion of those images are going to be cut off.

Right now, you have two options: You can do some of that measuring and trimming in your software, or you can do all that extra trimming on the physical print. It doesn’t really matter much: the images are going to get cut away either way. I, personally, find it easier to do in the software. However, if your software doesn’t have a good set of in-app rulers that allow you to do those measurements digitally, you might be forced to do them on the physical print.

The arms of your “cross” image will extend 104mm away from the TOP image. You only need a little over half of that. You’ll need 52mm of that image to cover the outside of the box, and an additional 15mm to wrap over the rim of your chipboard box (in order to completely cover the chipboard). Take a moment to reference the assembly instructions in the box tutorial to see where this extra 15mm comes into play.

So, on all 4 sides of your “cross” image, you’re going to measure 67mm from the edge of your TOP image…

…and delete the excess.

Now, you’re going to do the exact same process a second time, only now you’re going to do it for the bottom of your box. The one very important difference is how you align your images.

As before, drop your TOP image into your document:

Yes, I understand we’re working on the bottom of the box, but I’m still going to refer to this image as the “TOP” image because it’s the same image.

Then, drop in your SIDE image. Only this time, you’re going to rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise before aligning it with the right side of your TOP image, like this:

Then, follow the same process as above for all four sides of your image:

What you should end up with is an image that looks very much like the one you created for your box top, only all of the outer images will be aligned with their bottoms inward rather than their tops.

You can trim this image just like the top one, if that’s your desire:

Now, you should have two complete images, one for the box bottom and one for the lid.

ALIGNMENT

“But Luke,” you might ask, “how are we going to align the images so they match up on the sides of the closed box?”

Well, you already have. If your initial measurements are correct, then aligning the edges of the SIDE and END images in this way will automatically work out your alignment. Remember, in the finished print you’re going to be trimming away the excess and wrapping these images around a box whose measurements (hopefully) exactly match the measurements of your completed wrap. Since you’ve split a 104mm tall image into two 52mm halves, everything should look peachy. But it all depends on your initial measurements being correct.

MAKING THE “WINGS”

If you refer back to the box tutorial, you’ll remember that each box wrap image also has two “wings”, designed to wrap around the sides of the box and cover the chipboard at the corners. These “wings” need to be designed in such a way that the image on them matches the images on the side of the box wrap that will overlap them, to give the box an appearance of seamlessness.

Fortunately, we already have the appropriate images on hand. The process of creating these wings has a lot of steps to it, but it’s relatively straightforward.

Refer back to your completed box top wrap image:

Ideally, your image manipulation tool will include the ability to select and copy/paste parts of your images. There are other, more cumbersome ways to do this, but I’m not going to go into them in the hopes you’re using a decent tool.

So, select the bottom section of your right-hand SIDE image, like this:

Then copy and paste it, hopefully onto it’s own layer (does GIMP have layers?).

Next, rotate your copied image 90 degrees clockwise…

…then align it with the right-hand side of the END image at the bottom. Jesus, the language I have to use to describe this crap.

Now, you’ve created one of four “wings”.

I’ll walk through the basics of doing the other three:

Select the top section of your right-side image, copy/paste it, rotate the copied image 90 degrees counter clockwise, and align it with the right side of the END image on the top.

Repeat the process on the other side of the image.

For the top left wing, copy/paste and rotate the new piece 90 degrees clockwise before aligning.

For the bottom left wing, copy/paste and rotate the new piece 90 degrees counter-clockwise before aligning.

Your final image should look something like this:

In my screenshots, the wings I created were already exactly 10mm wide. If your cut/paste job wasn’t quite as precise, you’ll want to digitally trim all but 10mm of the sides of the “wings”. This step is imperative if you are unable or choose not to create cut lines, as the wings must be precisely 10mm wide in order to be able to cut the image properly, as noted later in this tutorial.

CREATING CUT LINES

This part of the process may not be entirely possible in all tools, and requires the ability to lay out guides like in Photoshop to be done properly. If you don’t have that ability in your tool, skip to the Print Your Wrap section for what to do next.

Now that your image is laid out, you’ll want to create cutting guides. In Photoshop, I do this with the Line tool, set to black and 3 pixels in width. Draw lines at the edges of your image as follows:

Four lines on either side to indicate cuts:

And six lines at the top and bottom of the image, four to indicate cuts and two to indicate folds:

This will make more sense when I get to the part where we’re cutting and applying the wrap. Just trust me for the moment. Here, I’ve turned off my guides so you can see what the cut lines look like:

PRINT YOUR WRAP

Ideally, you’ll be able to print your wrap on paper at least 9”x12”, so there is plenty of room for the image and cut lines. If 8.5”x11” is your maximum size, your image may end up being trimmed a little at the sides, but that’s not that big of a problem. The biggest issue you’ll run into here is that you may lose your cut-lines on the sides of the image if you can’t do borderless printing.

In any case, I suggest printing your images on a high-quality, large format color printer. For example, I have a Canon Pro 9000 Mark II photo printer that works great. If you don’t have access to a color printer, you can get color prints done at a print shop or a place like FedEx Office (Kinko’s).

My paper of choice for these wraps is Neenah Paper CLASSIC Linen Digital. It has a fantastic surface that takes inkjet ink well and provides a little bit of texture to emulate many of the boxes made by professional publishers. It’s a bit more expensive than your normal paper, but it’s worth it, IMO. And I can get it in 12”x18” sheets.

Normal linen paper – the kind you can buy at office supply stores and is generally used for resumes – is a good choice as well, BUT: Beware that it may not be rated for use in inkjet printers, and the ink may bleed and muddle your images if you try to run it through a photo printer. Find a place that can do color laser prints if you’re using that type of paper.

Avoid heavy weight papers like photo paper as they’ll be very difficult to manipulate during the box construction, and be sure that the paper you choose can properly accept acrylic sealant (some papers just soak it up rather than allow it to create a surface seal).

Your final print should look something like this:

ABOUT TWO-PIECE BIT BOXES

This entire tutorial has been based around making a graphics wrap for a custom card box where the top and bottom pieces of the box are identical in size, and the side images need to meet in the middle to create a cohesive whole. Well, what if you’re building box like the ones detailed in my Two-Piece Bit Box tutorial?

The answer is it’s actually simpler to make graphics wraps for that sort of box, because you don’t need to worry about the side images meeting up. The process, overall, is basically identical. You still create TOP, SIDE, and END images and assemble them in software the same way, but instead of creating SIDE and END images intending to cut them in half, you make them exactly the right size for each part of your box (bottom and lid).

In fact, the only real difference is that you have to create two separate templates, one for your box bottom and one for the lid, since they’re different sizes and will have entirely different imagery. For an example of this, take a look at the wrap artwork for my Le Havre bit boxes I’ve posted to my tutorials geeklist.

MARKING AND CUTTING

A lot of this information will be redundant to the same section in the box tutorial, but I figured I’d drop it in here as well.

On my print, I have cut-lines on the front (the lines around the edge of the paper). When I’m cutting, however, I use those cut-lines to transfer these marks to the back of the paper…

…and draw lines that I’ll use for cutting.

This is easier if you have a lightbox. I don’t, so I just use my office window. 🙂

Subsection: Marking The Print If You Don’t Have Cut-Lines

If you have cut-lines on your image, you can skip this section.

As stated earlier, there may be situations where you aren’t able to have cut-lines on your document. Maybe your photo manipulation software doesn’t have reasonable guides, maybe your printer cut them off during the printing process. DON’T FRET! It’s still possible to mark the back of your document using simply the edges of your finished image.

As with the normal document, flip the paper over and use a lightbox or window so you can see your image like this…

… then make marks at all the edges of your image, like this:


And draw lines connecting all of your marks, so you have this pattern:

It’s likely you won’t be able to see the division between your main image and the “wings”. This is why it’s imperative to ensure they’re exactly 10mm wide in the digital image, because now you can simply measure to make the appropriate markings.

From the lines that delineate the edges of your wings, measure and mark 10mm into your main image…

…then draw your final two lines, which will mark where your wings will fold.

We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Tutorial

This is important. If you just start cutting using the marks on the front, you’ll end up cutting off marks you’ll need to make the perpendicular cuts. Drawing the lines on the back allows you to retain your markings as you begin creating the shape.

Another important note: Not all of these lines are for cutting. Some of them are for folds, and some of them only require partial cuts. If we just cut all the lines willy-nilly, we’ll end up with a bunch of chopped up pieces. In the image below, I’ve marked what lines get cut, and what lines are just for folds. RED lines are cut lines, GREEN lines are fold lines:

Once you’ve transferred all the lines to the back, start by cutting away the excess at the outer edges of the paper:

Then, make four cuts from the outer edges, which will separate the “wings” from the main body of the wrap:

Then finish by cutting away the excess from each corner using the lines that define the outer edges of the wings.

This is what your final, cut wrap will look like from the back…

…and the front.

Notice the “wings” to wrap around the sides.

ADVANCED CUTTING TECHNIQUE

One thing you can do to improve the final look of your boxes is to trim just a little bit away from the edges of the wrap on the box sides, where they overlap the “wings”. Once you’ve finished the initial cuts above, set your ruler about 1mm away from the edge perpendicular to the “wings”, like this:

You can either eyeball this (like I do), or you can actually measure 1mm in from these cut lines to make it more precise.

Trim away that small sliver of paper, but don’t cut all the way down to the base of the wing.

Leave about 3-4mm…

then cut an angle or curve to mate the cut with the corner of the wing, like this:

The final cut should have a small space between the “bottom” edge of the wing and the side-image, like this:

This technique serves two main purposes: First, the final box will look a bit cleaner than the normal cut. Since the edge of the wrap doesn’t extend all the way to the corner of the box, you have more leeway when applying the wrap to get it “wrong”. Second, the fact that the paper doesn’t extend all the way to the box corner means it’ll also be less prone to peeling and damage. Here’s what the corners look like on the finished box:

APPLYING THE WRAP

Start by applying spray adhesive to the back-side of the wrap. I use 3M Super 77, as I find it has the best balance between hold and ease of application.

Make sure you cover a wide space around your actual item with newspaper or another shield, as there will be quite a bit of overspray. Put something down upon which you can set your graphics wrap to raise it off the surface…

…then lay your wrap on it graphics side down.

Ensure that whatever you use to raise the wrap up is completely covered by the wrap, so you can re-use it. Raising the wrap up like this accomplishes two goals: First, it makes the wrap easier to pick up after it’s been sprayed. If the wrap were sitting flat on the surface, it would be hard to pick it up without getting adhesive everywhere. Second, it allows you to re-use the same spray surface without having to re-cover it with a new layer of newspapers. As you can see, I’ve used this particular box for spraying a lot.

Spray the adhesive in light coats, holding the can about 12 inches away from the paper. When you’re done spraying, your paper should look something like this:

Side Note: Every time you finish spraying a piece, be sure to use a paper towel to clean the nozzle of your spray can. Spray adhesive has a tendency to build up on the spray can nozzle, and can cause all kinds of problems with future sprays.

Now that the adhesive is applied, position the box in the center using the lines you drew earlier.

(Here, you can see how the sides without “wings” are the same width as the box, while the “winged” sides are wider.)

In these pictures, I’m assembling the box bottom. Once the box is in place, fold up the sides, starting with the sides with the “wings”.

Always start your folds from the box corners at the bottom, smoothing the paper upward as you go. This ensures the corner will be nice and sharp and you’ll avoid any bubbles underneath the paper as you apply it.

Then, fold the wings around the sides of the box…

…then fold up the ends to overlap them.

Remember to do all of this as tightly as possible.

Once the sides have all been applied, use your xacto knife to cut the corners, like this:

Then fold the excess over the rim of the box (this is where that extra 15mm we discussed earlier comes into play).

In the creation process earler, we created SIDE and END images that were the total height of the box: 104mm. We then aligned them with the image that would sit on our box’s top and bottom in such a way that they extended up/down the sides of the box. Because our box sides are exactly 52mm tall, we’ve effectively cut those 104mm tall images perfectly in half solely by virtue of how we aligned them in the wrap image. When we close the finished box, the two image halves will mate to re-form the single image we created at the beginning.

Hopefully it’s clear from this creation process that this method will work for any size box. If your box is 224mm tall, you just need to create SIDE and END images at that height, and divide them appropriately based on the height of your individual box halves.

Lastly, apply an acrylic sealant to the outside of the box to protect the print. I like to use Krylon Colormaster Clear Gloss sealant, as it creates a very nice, professional looking finish. Apply the acrylic in 3-4 light coats. DO NOT try to shortcut this process by applying a heavy, wet coat to the boxes. If too much of the acrylic sealant soaks through the paper, it can undermine the adhesion of the spray adhesive.

Applying acrylic sealant accomplishes two goals. First, it protects the color of the print from fading and yellowing over time. Second, it will actually physically protect the more vulnerable parts of the paper, such as the exposed edges on the sides of the box, from damage.

FINISHED PRODUCT

And that’s it! You’ve now created a graphics wrap to go over your new card box. Pairing this tutorial with my Graphics-Wrapped Chipboard Card Boxes Tutorial will allow you to create awesome, compact boxes for many different games, much like I did for my own Custom Box Project.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to post them here and I’ll try to answer them in a timely manner. I look forward to seeing any boxes created with these tutorials. Happy crafting!

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Category: Tutorials