How to make a box looking like a GMT’s one

How to make a box looking like a GMT’s one = solid, heavy box which will keep safe all your game elements, and looks great 😉

The materials:

3mm book binding cardboard (I bought it in 100×70 cm size), you can also use 2mm book binding cardboard but then the dimensions to cut will be different
book binding glue
the illustration printed on adhesive foil in one piece (solvent print on my local printing house)
someting to cut (I’m using wallpaper cutting tools)
metal cut ruler (it has special one side to make a cut)
cutting mat (minimal size A3, best A1)
sandpaper

Dimensions:
The outside box (bigger): 32,3 cm x 22,8 cm x 7,0 cm (12,71 x 8,97 x 2.75 inch)
The inside box (smaller) – it should be 2mm smaller to fit best into the bigger box: 31,5 cm x 22,0 cm x 6,7 cm (12,4 x 8,66 x 2,64 inch)

Counting the dimensions to be cuted:
The outside box (bigger):
– 1x 32,3 cm x 22,8 cm (12,71 x 8,97 inch)
– 2x 32,3 cm x 6,7 cm (12,71 x 2,64 inch)
– 2x 22,2 cm x 6,7 cm (8,74 x 2,64 inch)

The inside box (smaller) – it should be 1,5mm-2mm smaller to fit best into the bigger box:

– 1x 31,5 cm x 22,0 cm (12,4 x 8,66 inch)
– 2x 31,5 cm x 6,4 cm (12,4 x 2,52 inch)
– 2x 21,4 cm x 6,4 cm (8,42 x 2,52 inch)

Costs:
Here in Poland material costs are:
These materials you can use for the first and the next boxes:

someting to cut: $3
metal cut ruler: $12
cutting mat (A3): $4
sandpaper: $1

One time materials:

3mm book binding cardboard : $2.5
book binding glue: $1.5
printout: $5

Because of that countings, first box will cost more, but the next ones should cost ca. $9

Time:
Making the box: cutting and sticking last some about one hour.
Sticking last half an hour for one piece.
Total: 2 hours.

Preparing the cardboard:
Draw lines for cut on the cardboard, and remember to make it very precisely or the box sides won’t fit together.

Cut it along the lines into pieces:

Check it before glue. Are they fit together? Until now you can still make any needed corrections!!

Glue the bigger box:

Glue the bottom with the long side (after it some people are waiting till it dry, but I glue all together at once):

Glue one by one next sides. The short:

Next short one:

And the last long one:

Leave it to dry (you can use one of yours heavy games):

Glue the smaller box:

After dried, check one more time how the pieces from the smaller box will fit in the bigger box. Are they fit together? It is the last time to correct mistakes. Remember that foil needs some space.

If everything fit together, then glue the smaller box in the same way as the bigger one.

Round corners of both boxes:

When both parts will dry then make all the hard corners little round using sandpaper.

The boxes are ready. Next step is to taped them with printout.

Cut the back paper on your print:

The illustration is printed on adhesive foil, so you need to remove paper to stick it. I cut this paper into 9 pieces before sticking the foil to the box.

Make small cuts (1 cm) in 8 places marked by the round circles.

Then, reverse the print and carefully remove the paper from it.

Then carefully put the foil in a safe place.

Make the cuts (now only on the paper) little bigger – only to cut it easier into 9 pieces like on the next photo.

And then cut the paper for 9 pieces:

Next step is to mount this 9 pieces back to the printout (foil) in the same way as they was originaly:

Stick the foil to the top of the box:

It is not easy, so I use two similar size boxes for help. Take the BIGGER box and put between two other boxes (or books). They only need to be a little shorter than your box:

Fit the printout to the box using ruler or other long object. It is not easy 😉

Look at ruler, it should touch the cutting line you made before.

If you are sure that the printout fits perfect the box, then put something heavy on the printout and box (on one side) – this way the printout will not move, when you will stick it to the box. Put up the other side of printout and carefully peel off the 10cm piece of the paper.