How do I make a perfectly round box?

Set the width and the depth to the same number and the oval becomes a circle.

Why is the wall strip longer than the width of the oval?

It has to reach all the way round the edge, so its length is the perimeter, not the width. The generator also adds a little for the thickness of your board so the finished box is the size you asked for.

Will the lid be loose or tight?

That is the lid clearance setting. Half a millimetre is snug, a full millimetre slides easily. Increase it for thick or textured card.

Oval Box Template — Free Printable Gift Box, Any Size

The oval box template, flat and folded

Oval box template — free printable dieline with cut and fold lines, any size — The printable dieline at its standard size. Type your own size above for yours.

Oval box folded up from the template — the finished box — The finished oval box, made from it.

What this template is for

An oval or elliptical box with a lift-off lid. Soap boxes, hat boxes, trinket and jewellery boxes — set both widths the same for a circle.

Also called elliptical box · oval gift box · soap box with lid — all the same shape, and this is it.

Hat boxes and gift boxes
Soap, candle and cosmetics packaging
Trinket and jewellery boxes
Cake and dessert boxes

Making an oval box with a lid that fits

How the box goes together

An oval box is four parts: a base, a long wall strip that wraps round it with small tabs along one edge, and a lid top with its own shorter wall strip. The strip is cut to the distance round the oval, not its width, with a little added for the card thickness so the finished box is the size you typed.

Which card

Thin card between 200 and 300 gsm curves smoothly. Thicker card tends to go round in flat facets unless you pre-curl it: roll the strip round a bottle, a rolling pin or a tin before gluing, and it takes the bend. Type the card thickness into Material thickness.

Getting the lid right

The lid is the base made bigger all round by the card thickness plus the lid clearance. About half a millimetre gives a snug lid that stays on when the box is picked up by it; one millimetre lifts off easily. Textured or very thick card needs the larger figure. A deep lid, a third to half the box height, makes a hat box; a shallow one looks like a soap or trinket box.

Sizes people make it in

Soap box: about 95 × 65 mm and 35 mm high for a standard oval bar.
Trinket or ring box: 60 to 80 mm wide.
Hat box for gifts or storage: 200 to 300 mm wide. A wall strip longer than the paper is printed in numbered sections that glue end to end.
Round box: set the depth the same as the width.

Mistakes to avoid

Gluing the strip into a loop first and then forcing the base in. Glue the strip round the base, tab by tab, so it follows the curve.
Very narrow, very long ovals. The tighter the ends, the harder the card has to bend there; as a rule of thumb, keep the depth at least half the width for card above 250 gsm.

How to use this template

All four downloads are the same oval box at the same size — only the format changes.

PDF printing at home: Print at 100 per cent, or hand it to a print shop as "actual size, no scaling".
PNG 300 dpi Canva, Photoshop, Procreate: Upload, lock it in place and design your oval box on top. Free plan and phone included. Full Canva walkthrough →
SVG Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity: Vector, with cuts, folds and labels on separate layers. Cricut and Silhouette walkthrough →
DXF Silhouette, laser and vinyl cutters: Two layers, CUT and FOLD — and the one free Silhouette Studio Basic will open.

Getting it printed properly →

Printing it

Type your size above, then download the PDF.
Print at 100% — never “fit to page”, or every measurement comes out wrong.
Too big for the paper? Pick your paper size and leave Fit the pieces to the page ticked: each piece gets its own place on a sheet and the PDF comes out with every page in it, nothing cut in half and nothing to tape.

How to put it together

These pictures are the oval box itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.

Cut the solid lines
Every solid line is a cut. Do the inside shapes first, while the sheet is still whole and easy to hold.
Score every dashed line
Dashed lines are folds. Score each one first — an empty ballpoint against a ruler — or the card cracks along the outside of the bend.
Fold, glue and hold
Curl the wall strip round a bottle or tin first so it takes the bend, then glue it into a loop round the base and fix the tabs down.

Glue: a glue stick for paper, white PVA on card — hold each seam thirty seconds, and let it dry before you use it.

Questions about the oval box

How do I make a perfectly round box?: Set the width and the depth to the same number and the oval becomes a circle.
Why is the wall strip longer than the width of the oval?: It has to reach all the way round the edge, so its length is the perimeter, not the width. The generator also adds a little for the thickness of your board so the finished box is the size you asked for.
Will the lid be loose or tight?: That is the lid clearance setting. Half a millimetre is snug, a full millimetre slides easily. Increase it for thick or textured card.

Print your own design on it

Add a logo, photo or pattern in the panel on the left and drag it onto the oval box. It is trimmed to the cut outline, embedded properly in the PDF, and never leaves your computer — most free template sites hand you the outline and stop there. How printing your own design works.

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