I love RPG's and am an avid gamer. I play a lot of D&D and need to have my spell book cards for the druid that I play. I don't like any of the store bought boxes that I have seen so I decided to construct my own. Since I play a druid, I chose earthy colors for my box.

My purpose for this box was to hold a deck of cards, but you don't have to play games in order to make this box. Providing you have the measurements you want, you can make this box in any size for any purpose.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

You will need:

1 sheet of plastic canvas (you can find this in the cross stitch section of any hobby store and Walmart)

notebook/pencil: providing you want to take notes on measurement or embroider a design in your box

yarn: any color of your choosing or multicolored if you prefer

yarn needle

scissors

tape measure

Step 2: Measure and Cut Your Plastic Canvas

This Instructable was designed to hold a Druid spell card deck for D&D since I haven't found a card box yet that I am happy with. To make this box, I first took measurements of the cards taking note of the length, width, height, and thickness of the deck. These measurements will all come into play when creating your box and you don't want to make a mistake and waste your canvas, so I suggest jotting the sizes into a handy notebook. After I got all of my measurements, I used them to start cutting my canvas into pieces for my box. Be sure to cut in between the squares of the canvas (you will trim off the bars of the canvas for a smooth edge once all of your pieces are cut to size). You will end up with 4 sides, a bottom, a top, and sides of the top to drape over your box, as shown in photos 1 and 2 (disregard the 2 small pieces in the first photo, those pieces ended up being put to other use irrelevant to the box I have made). Once you have this your initial pieces, you will see the rough edges shown in photo 3. Carefully line your scissors up with the edge of the last row of squares of the canvas and trim the loose ends off. This will leave you with a smooth canvas to work with and begin making your box.

Step 3: Thread Your Needle and Begin Stitching the Canvas

It's time to begin making your box. Thread your yarn needle with the yarn you chose and begin by placing your needle through the very first square on the top right hand side of the canvas. Bring it through and hold a small piece, or "tail" of the yarn so you can stitch over as you go to hold it securely into place. Once your yarn is all the way through the first hole, bring it through the hole left diagonal and you have your first stitch. Bring the yarn back through the hole underneath the first stitch (it should be the second hole now on the very right edge of the canvas) and go again through the hole diagonal it. Repeat this until you get to the end of the row and simply move onto the next row until you've completed the entire piece of canvas. If you run out of yarn in the process before you've completed your piece, simply cut another piece of yarn, bring it through the back stitches you've previously stitched to keep it secure, and continue with your stitching. You've now stitched your first square. Do this until you've stitched all 4 sides of your box.

Step 4: Begin Sewing Your Box Together

Now that you have all 4 pieces of your box stitched up, it's time to put them together. You can use the same color yarn as you chose for your box, but for my purposes, I wanted a contrasting color, so I went with a lighter brown. Begin by running your yarn through a few of the stitches on the inside of one of the sides of the box to hold it securely into place and so you don't have a messy bunch of stray yarn on the inside of your box. Then take your needle and go through the inside of the first corner of the edge of one of the sides and over the top into the outside of the first corner of the other side you are stitching together as shown in the second photo. Repeat this being sure to continue going through the inside of the box and over the outside to give it the appearance of an edging rather than the canvas showing. Do this on all four pieces of canvas until they are all stitched together and you have a bottomless and topless box.

Step 5: Time to Make (and Connect) the Bottom of Your Box

Now take the piece you have designated for the bottom of the box and simply stitch the canvas the same way you've done the sides. I like to put three stitches in the corners so it keeps it looking full and you're not able to see the plastic canvas through the yarn. When you are through, connect the bottom in the same fashion as you did the sides. It will be a bit more difficult since your box is connected at the sides, but once you have your first stitch in place going to the outside of the box and you go through both the outside and next inside squares in the same stitch, it goes more smoothly and a little bit quicker too.

Step 6: Construct the Top of Your Box and Secure It Into Place

Okay, you've gotten this far. That's an accomplishment, this was certainly not easy. All that's left is making and securing the top of your box. I made the top of my box so that it draped over the box as a lid. I began by stitching each piece. Then I connect them together just as I had with the rest of the top thus far. I secured it to the rest of my box, sewing only the back of the top to the rest of the box. This will allow it to open while keeping it securely in place on the rest of the box.

You can now place your cards into your box if you'd like. You can make a box of any size using this Instructable. You can also add an embellishment or button if you'd prefer to keep it from coming open in your bag, although I've found the lid of the box that I have made stays in place and doesn't open on it's own.