Thursday, December 20, 2007

CD Label Tutorial

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I burned a DVD of photos and videos to give my grandparents for Christmas. One of my favorite things about it, though, was that I figured out an easy way to make labels for CDs and DVDs! I know you can buy the ones you run through your printer, but I want to be able to tailor them to a specific project. So here's how I did it...

1. Choose a piece of patterned paper (not the cardstock weight). Using your circle cutter, cut a 4.5 inch diameter circle. Then cut a 1.75 inch circle from the very center so you have a ring. (One of the things I like about my Curvy Cutter is that I can adjust the cutter without moving my paper or the track - it makes cutting rings super easy!)


2. Stamp your design on the patterned paper. I have been using a lot of this Autumn Leaves flourish - it fits perfectly three times around! Add any hand doodling or labeling at this point. **Make sure you don't use any dimensional products (such as embossing or heavy paint) in your stamping or writing. They will throw the balance off the CD/DVD and can potentially ruin your disc and/or machine!**


3. Run your finished design through a Xyron so that it is sticky on one side. If you choose an alternate adhesive for your label, make sure that it provides thin, even coverage so the disc is not thrown off balance and the label doesn't get stuck in the player.


4. Peel off the backing and adhere the label to your disc. Congratulations!! You're done! How easy was that??


As mentioned before, DVDs/CDs fit perfectly in the back of a paper bag album. If you don't know how to make them, or don't want to take the time, you can always get one (or have a custom one made) at Wickland PaperCrafts. (yes, that was a shameless plug)


They make great gifts (last minute Christmas gifts, anyone??) and are easy to mail. Especially since I found these cool bubble mailers at Walmart that are the PERFECT size:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the idea but I wanted to pass on a word of concern to anyone thinking about using stickers to label discs. Discs turn at an incredibly fast speed inside your disc drive. If the sticker is even slightly off center it will cause read problems for your disc. You want your discs to not only look good but to function correctly also. IMHO I recommend using the easiest and simplest disc labeler out there, a printer called the Dymo DiscPainter.

Anonymous said...

I would have to agree with Terry, it is a really nice idea and the labels Elizabeth made did look beautiful but you would have to be so careful when you sticked them onto the disc. There are plenty of CD/DVD label writers out there which would print labels onto your discs and would not make the CD/DVD skip as some labels can do if you are sticking them onto the disc.

CD Label said...

Frankly the design that you have shown looks perfect. Its so very sober Gosh! I love the way you people nowadays are showing their creativity and thank God I came to your Blog as otherwise I would have missed something. Thanks for the share as it will help me to create one for my use!