My husband and I are really enjoying Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Game for Lord Of The Rings. Many other Fantasy Flight card games also come in the same size box such as: Android Netrunner, A Game of Thrones, Warhammer Invasion, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars and more. After purchasing the first core set and a few expansion packs, our box had become quite a mess of elastic banded cards.

I went searching for a card box organizer and found a few nice ones you can buy made of out of either balsa wood or plastic, but after taxes and shipping I would be out nearly $50 and the crafty part of me thought… I can do this! So… here it is, the instructions to make your own box organizer for your cards out of cardboard (you can paint it black to make it look nice).

You Will Need:

• Large shipping/packing cardbox box.
• Sharp scissors or box-cutter or Xacto blade.
• A straight-edge like a meter stick or a level.
• Long ruler, or measuring tape.
• White glue (optional).
• Pencil.
• Download These BluePrints (PDF).

Step 1: Preparation

Remove all tape, stickers, glue etc from the box and dismantle it so it’s a big flat piece. Find the largest cleanest area. Put the ‘ugly’ side on the bottom. Get the blueprints PDF from this blog post (link above).

Step 2: Cut out the Base Panel

Mark out the base panel on a long clean section of the box that is 11 & 5/16 inches wide (the inner dimension of the bottom of the game box) and 26 & 4/16 inches long. Cut this out neatly and cleanly.

Mark 9 lines along this base panel that are 2 & 10/16 inches apart and cut them very carefully only half-way through the cardboard. Fold these lines as shown in the diagram to create 3 peaks and 4 troughs. Fit it into the box and shave off a bit if needed.

Step 3: Cut Slots in the Base Panel

In the peaks of the base panel, cut 2 slots 4/16 inches wide that go about half-way down the peak. Space these evenly to cut the peak into thirds. They will be about 3 & 12/16 inches apart. See the diagram in the blueprint.

Step 4: Cut the Dividers

Using sheet 2 of the blueprints, cut out 2 divider panels that are 5 inches wide by 11 & 5/16 inches long. Cut matching slots in them so when they are folded, they fit down onto the slots you cut in the base panel. Shave off a bit as needed.

Assemble and Customize

Shaving tiny bits off the edges as needed, fit the 2 dividers down onto the base panel. Your box will now have 12 small sections which can fit your cards on their sides. You can turn one row into a large single section by cutting off the ends of the dividers so that you have a large section to put the bigger pieces like the threat counters, pencils or the quest sheets.

Paint your organizer black with a paint that won’t rub off onto your cards (test first) to make it really look finished. The instruction manual should lay on top and the box should close nicely. You can put white-glue inside of the folded pieces to give some stability but I don’t recommend gluing the entire thing to the game box itself. I took some of the cardboard that came in the box originally and had a nice scene of Gandalf and I cut it to make a decorative backing for the large section of my organizer which you can see in the photo.

Notes

Sorry these are only in Imperial measurements. I only had an American tape measure on hand when I started my little project. If anyone wants to give metric units I will post them up here with much gratitude.

The thickness of your cardboard might throw the measurements off a tiny bit. You should be able to make small adjustments by cutting off slivers here and there.

Be careful of the surface you are cutting on!

Works with un-sleeved cards. Not sure about sleeved ones.

I used a jumbo diaper box for my project. That cracks me up! :)

Happy Gaming!