Custom Gift Card Boxes
Custom gift card boxes made to your size and artwork, from 100. Because the card itself is weightless, the box is the whole present — so we build it to feel like one, and send you a dieline and a price the same working day.
Making something worth $25 feel like something worth $25
- Internal size
- Built around 85.6 × 54 mm card; depth 8–20 mm
- Builds
- Slim rigid case, slot-and-sleeve, magnetic folder, tuck carton
- Card holding
- Die-cut slot, corner cuts, ribbon lift
Get a price for Gift Card Boxes
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
The card is a fixed size, so the box is too
A standard gift card is 85.6 × 54 mm — the same as a bank card, and it does not vary. That means the internal dimension is settled before the conversation starts, and the only real decisions are depth, closure and how the card is held.
Depth is where brands overspend. A 20 mm deep box for a 0.8 mm card looks empty when opened. 8–10 mm reads as deliberate; anything more needs something else in there.
| Card only | 8–10 mm internal depth, die-cut slot |
|---|---|
| Card plus a note | 12–14 mm, with a paperboard platform |
| Card plus a small gift | 20 mm+, and now it is a gift box, not a card box |
Hold the card, do not let it rattle
The corner-cut version is the one most premium retailers use, and it costs almost nothing over a plain platform.
- A die-cut slot in a paperboard platform — cheapest, and the card sits proud enough to grip.
- Two corner cuts, so the card is held at opposite corners and lifts out cleanly.
- A ribbon under the card, which lifts it when pulled. More theater, more assembly.
- A foam or felt insert, which is overkill for a card and reads as it.
Finish is doing all the work
With no weight and no volume to impress, the surface is the entire experience. This is one of the few places where foil genuinely earns its cost — the box is small, so the block is small, and it will not be posted naked.
Soft-touch on a small box also punches above its price. What does not work is four-color print on a slim carton; there is not enough area for an image to land.
Small boxes show every fingerprint. On white soft-touch, expect them; on darker stock, not.
Posting them, and the letterbox question
A gift card box is the ideal letterbox item and it is routinely built too thick for one. Check your carrier's depth limit before setting the box depth — the difference between 24 mm and 26 mm can be a different tariff on every parcel, for the reasons set out in our note on box size and shipping cost.
Gift Card Boxes — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Internal size
- Built around 85.6 × 54 mm card; depth 8–20 mm
- Builds
- Slim rigid case, slot-and-sleeve, magnetic folder, tuck carton
- Card holding
- Die-cut slot, corner cuts, ribbon lift
- Finishes
- Foil, emboss, soft-touch, spot UV
- Minimum
- 100 boxes
- Note
- Check letterbox depth before fixing the box depth
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. One side or both, with spot colors where a match has to hold.
- Color
- CMYK as standard. Uncoated and kraft stocks print lighter and warmer; a spot color is the only exact match.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1 mm, creasing plus or minus 0.5 mm, confirmed on a plain sample before the run.
- Tooling
- A cutting die per size, made once and kept. Foil and emboss dies per artwork, also kept.
- Food contact
- Food-grade board and inks where the carton touches food, with the interior left plain.
- Sustainability
- Mono-material board wherever the product allows; recycled-content and FSC stocks; no claim printed the pack does not earn.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build gift card boxes on
A folding carton is one sheet of board, so the board is the product. These are the stocks we run for cartons, what each is good at, and where it lets you down.
Natural kraft
Unbleached folding board. Warm, hides marks, costs least. Mutes color — one or two flat colors print well, photographs do not.
250–350gsm sleeves; 14–24pt cartonsWhite SBS
Solid bleached sulfate: bright, coated, the retail carton standard. Takes accurate color and every finish. Shows scuffs sooner than kraft.
14–24ptWhite lined chipboard
A recycled gray core under a white printing face. Cheaper than SBS and slightly duller; the back of the sheet stays gray.
16–24ptKraft-look coated
A kraft face over a coated inner. The natural look with a barrier behind it — the answer where oil, grease or moisture would mark plain kraft.
14–20ptRecycled-content board
Post-consumer fiber with a gray-brown cast. Right for outers and inner components; poor for bright whites and photography.
16–22ptMicro-flute E and F
A fine corrugated layer where a carton needs structure it cannot get from board — a large panel, a heavy product, a box that ships alone.
E 1.5 mm; F 0.8 mmUncoated and textured
No clay coat, or a linen or laid grain. Print reads softer and warmer; a deboss goes deeper. Photographs do not sit well on it.
280–350gsmMetallised and pearlescent
A metallic or pearl face for a shelf that needs to catch light. Costly, and it fights a photograph — a mark or a pattern suits it better.
16–20ptNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Every finish here is a decision about light on a shelf, not about luxury.
Matte lamination
Reads considered, hides marks, takes a ballpoint.
Gloss lamination
Lifts color; glares under shop lighting.
Soft-touch
Velvet in the hand; shows fingerprints in a bag.
Hot foil
Real metal leaf — the most reliable premium signal.
Emboss / deboss
Shape with no ink; works in the dark.
Spot UV
Gloss shapes on a matte field.
Uncoated kraft
Warm, natural, mutes color.
Textured stock
Texture in the paper; cannot scuff off.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing a folding carton so the die comes out right: gift card boxes
Measure the product, not the box it is in now. A carton is built around what has to fit inside it, assembled — cap on, lid fitted, folded if it folds — at its widest point in each direction. Send those three numbers and say which is which.
- Length x width x height
- Internal, always. External dimensions include the board and are what the carrier measures, not what the product needs.
- Clearance
- 2–3 mm a side for a snug fit; more where an insert or void fill goes in. A carton cut exactly to the product is slow to pack and transmits every knock.
- Board thickness
- Heavier board takes internal space from the product. It matters most on small boxes, where four walls of 24pt is a real share of the cavity.
- Varies between batches?
- Glass, textiles, molded parts and cured soap all do. Measure several and build to the largest.
- Cutting tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm on folding board. Confirmed on a plain sample before the run.
- Units
- Metric or imperial, as long as you say which. Mixing them in one spec is where mistakes happen.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Gift Card Boxes in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about gift card boxes? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What size box fits a standard gift card?
A gift card is 85.6 by 54 mm — the same as a bank card — so the box is built around that plus the depth you want it to feel. The card size never changes; only the depth is a decision.
Can it go through a letterbox?
Yes, if you keep the depth under about 20 mm. Above that it becomes a parcel and the postage changes, which usually costs more than the box did.
How do you hold the card so it does not slide?
A die-cut slit, a card collar or a foam pad. A slit is cheapest and holds well; a collar looks more considered and costs a little more.
Can I add a ribbon or a magnetic closure?
Both, though on something this small a magnetic closure is a large share of the unit price. A ribbon pull inside usually gives more effect for less.
What is the minimum order?
100 boxes. Below that the die and press set-up dominate, so you would be paying mostly for tooling.
How long does production take?
It depends on the finish and the run, and we give you a date with the quote rather than a promise before we have seen the spec.
Can you print the inside?
Yes, and on a gift card box it is worth it — the inside is what the recipient sees at the moment they open it.
Do you supply the gift cards too?
No, we make the packaging. Send the card dimensions and thickness and we build around them.
Can one box hold several cards?
Yes, with a deeper build or a divided insert. Tell us the count and we will size it.
Will you send a dieline before printing?
Always, with the quote, and it is yours whether or not you order.
What size is a standard gift card?
85.6 × 54 mm, the same as a bank card. It does not vary, so the internal footprint is fixed and only depth is a decision.
How deep should the box be?
8–10 mm for a card alone. Deeper than that and the box looks empty unless something else goes in with it.
Is foil worth it on something this small?
Here, yes. The block is small so the tooling is cheap, and with no weight to impress the surface is doing everything.
Can it go through a letterbox?
Easily, if you set the depth against your carrier's limit first. Most gift card boxes are built thicker than they need to be.
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