A WELL - DRESSED DVD | DIY TUTORIAL | AUGUST 13

Recently, I have been absent from my blog as I have been quite busy producing a video/picture slideshow. This video was presented to our family and closest friends at A Celebration of Life we hosted to honour my niece this past weekend. My niece passed away a short time ago, after a brief but courageous battle with Colon Cancer. Although she was my niece, we grew up like sisters due to the closeness in our ages. Our family is so completely devastated by her loss.

I have spent countless hours working on this DVD, making a picture story to Celebrate her beautiful life.  This was by far one of the most difficult and emotional projects I have ever completed but the video is wonderful.  I am very happy with the end result and so was our family and friends. I burned extra copies to be given as a special gift for family and dearest friends.

My dilemma though, after completing this video which highlights the life of the most beautiful and kind human being to have ever graced this planet and who has touched the lives of so many was; what will I present this Memorial keepsake DVD gift in? It also has to beautiful.  There is NO WAY that I would be presenting it in the plastic jewel case the DVD came in! NO WAY!!

I searched and searched the internet for ideas and I finally stumbled upon this great website to find exactly what I was looking for and the absolute perfect solution. I love, love, love this idea and I am sure you will too!!

My niece was crazy about daisy's and her favourite colour was purple so this was the inspiration for the project. Get the details below of how to make this gorgeous jacket which can be completely customized (the sky is the limit) which holds the CD/DVD.

Instructions;

Once you have reached the website you will find a number of templates to choose from.  I chose the CD Cover template. 

You will be prompted to fill in a few fields.  First step is to upload a picture or artwork into the middle square. I uploaded the daisy picture shown above for my project. There are some cropping options which enable you to display your picture perfectly. 

Next - complete the fields named Title and the other is Text which will print below the Title.  See example above. Title is - A Celebration of Life ~ (name of my niece has been blurred for privacy) and then below is the date of the Celebration.

Next Click Download - I saved the image to my desktop. This will save your project as a jpeg.  Now print off your template. The picture above is my printed template. 

Before we go any further, I would like to give you a few words of advice - I decided to go to my local office supply store and purchase a heavier photo paper with a sheen to print my template on.  I reasoned that the heavier paper would protect the DVD contents and the photo paper would yield a beautiful image. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG and SO TERRIBLY WRONG!  The image turned out all streaky and the colour was completely off and totally not acceptable.   

Oh great, now what do I do ????

I decided to print the template onto the regular paper stock in the photocopy machine. Which turned out beautifully by the way but when it was time to cut the template out, I doubled up the printed template on the regular weight paper above with the heavier paper I purchased behind to give it a cardboard stiffness needed to protect the DVD.   Voila!! Just Perfect.

Another little tip - Fold along the fold lines first prior to cutting out the out the template, otherwise you will be cutting off the fold lines as well.

Look closely ~ you can now see the two pieces of paper.  I used a glue stick just at the top of each curved area to bind them together. Worked like a charm!

Here is the front side.

Now fold in the side flaps first, then the bottom and finally the top which has the Text. At this point you could just use a resealable sticker to keep the cover closed.  I chose a sticker and a purple ribbon.

Here is the back.....

And the Front....

This would be a great way to present a wedding picture DVD, a baby shower picture DVD, a special birthday party DVD, you just customize it to whatever fits your event.

I am very happy with the way this turned out. Such little effort for such a beautiful Memorial gift presentation.

Just a tad nicer than the plastic jewel case wouldn't you agree??

Soulier Design Studio specializes in Sustainability, Eco-Friendly Design, Products and Lifestyle.

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