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Make Your Own Book Box Mailer

Don’t buy a box — recycle one. Turn a plain sheet of old cardboard into a snug, corner-protected mailer that ships a book safely. Watch the animation, then follow the written steps below.

Watch it step by step

Animated steps: how to cut and fold a book wrap mailer
Plays on its own. Click Pause (or the picture) to stop, and use the step buttons to jump around.

Tools & materials

The written steps

1

Measure your book & cut the base sheet

Measure the book’s Length (L), Width (W) and Thickness / Depth (D), then cut a flat sheet to these sizes:

Sheet Width = W + (2 × D) + (2 × Side Flap, about ¾ of W)
Sheet Length = L + (2 × D) + (2 × Overlap Flap, about 60% of L)
2

Lay out the pattern & cut out the corner blocks

  1. Draw the center rectangle: mark the base area at exactly Book Length × Book Width.
  2. Mark the depth channels: draw two parallel score lines on all 4 sides around the center rectangle, spaced apart by the Book Depth.
  3. Cut away the corner squares: cut out and discard all 4 outer corner rectangles. You now have a cross shape with 4 flaps.
💡 Tip — double scoring for book depth. Books have thickness! Always score two parallel lines separated by the book’s depth. That gives clean, vertical side walls so the cardboard wraps snugly around the spine without crushing the pages.
3

Check the flat layout (cross mailer)

After the 4 corners are cut out, your sheet should look like this:

Cut Corner Top Outer Flap Cut Corner +------------+--------------------------------------------+------------+ | | | | | (REMOVE) | TOP FLAP | (REMOVE) | | | (Overlaps Bottom) | | +------------+============================================+------------+ | |====== Double Score Line (Book Depth) ======| | +------------+--------------------------------------------+------------+ | Side Flap | | Side Flap | | (Left) | BOOK BASE | (Right) | | Folds In | (Length × Width) | Folds In | +------------+--------------------------------------------+------------+ | |====== Double Score Line (Book Depth) ======| | +------------+--------------------------------------------+------------+ | | BOTTOM FLAP | | | (REMOVE) | (Overlaps Top) | (REMOVE) | | | | | +------------+--------------------------------------------+------------+ Cut Corner Bottom Outer Flap Cut Corner
4

Fold, wrap & seal

  1. Score all hinge lines: run your dull scoring tool along every double crease line on all 4 sides.
  2. Place the book in the center: set it directly on the center rectangle.
  3. Fold the side flaps first: fold the left and right flaps in snugly over the edges of the book.
  4. Fold the outer flaps: fold the bottom flap up over the book, then the top flap down over it so they overlap across the middle.
  5. Tape the seam: run packing tape down the overlapping middle seam and across the side edges to lock the book inside.

Got a book to ship? Here are a few worth shipping. Riverside Rat makes RV logbooks, large-print puzzle books for seniors, coloring books and true stories — all on Amazon.

See the books on Amazon →

Or browse by kind: RV Logbooks · Large Print · Coloring Books · True Stories

Like free tools like this? There’s a digital RV log book, an AI prompt tool, a QR card maker, a paper farm and more — all free, nothing to sign up for.

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