How to Make a Personalized CD
For Valentine’s Day this year, I made my boyfriend a CD complete with a jewel case, a front booklet, and a back page. I got the idea for this gift from this TikTok I saw all the way back in September. I thought, ‘Hey, I can do that!’ I think I can proudly say it’s the best present I’ve ever given anyone, and it’s not as difficult as you might think. If you want to make your own CD for a friend, significant other/partner, family member, or even just for your own enjoyment, follow these steps. It’ll look great, I promise.
1. Figure out your tracklist
I made a playlist of all of the songs that reminded me of him and our relationship immediately after I saw that TikTok and continued to tweak my list for months until it felt just right. While you don’t need to give yourself that much time to perfect your tracklist, I would recommend setting aside a bit to really think about the songs you want to include and what order you want them to play in. I really wanted mine to flow like an album would and decided to start off with upbeat songs then transition to slower, more toned-down tracks before coming full circle and finishing off with a bang of energy.
Pay attention to the endings and beginnings of each song. If one ends on a very slow, bare note, you don’t want the next song to start at full volume and scare the listener. Be mindful of how your songs are ordered and listen to the playlist all the way through – no skipping – a few times and adjust as necessary. When you think you’ve figured out the perfect order, it’s time to actually make the CD.
2. Download your songs and burn your CD
Now, you have to find or buy a blank CD to use. Be sure you get one that can hold 80 minutes of content to give yourself some leeway. I got mine from Memorex. You’ll also need a clear jewel case to house your CD and your booklet/covers. Either find a pack of clear jewel cases or repurpose an old one you won’t miss.
To burn a CD, you need a computer or laptop with a CD/DVD reader on the side. Thankfully, my old family computer at home had a port but if you don’t have access to one with a reader already built in, you can find one to plug into your laptop.
Next, find all of the songs you want on YouTube in high quality. Videos posted by the artists/bands themselves usually provide the best quality. Once you’ve found your videos, it’s time to return to a classic – YouTube to MP3. I used this one, but there are countless others out there, all with popup ads and the same sketchy, kind of concerning feel to them. It’s fine. I think.
Now, download your YouTube videos and convert them to MP3 files. If you’re on a Mac, open iTunes and create a playlist to hold all of your files in the order you want by dragging and dropping your files into iTunes. Then, insert your CD and choose File > Burn Playlist to Disc and wait until your songs have loaded onto your disc.
If you’re on a PC, open Windows Media Player and then click Switch to Library. Select the Burn tab and click on the Audio CD option. Insert your blank CD and then drag your songs into your burn list. Once you have them in the right order, click Start Burn and wait until your CD has finished burning.
Great! That part is over. Now it’s time for a little graphic design.
3. Design your CD front cover, booklet, and back cover
For my CD, I used Photoshop to create the designs for my pages. If you’re not very experienced with Photoshop, Canva also offers CD templates you can use to create your designs.
If using Photoshop, create a new project that measures 5x5 inches, or with the dimensions 1500 px x 1500 px. You want your project to be square so it can fit into your jewel case.
Now, you can create any design your heart desires, just be sure your booklet has at least 8 pages. Save these pages as PNGs to make sure your selected colors aren’t changed in the next template. I won’t include the side of a page that has the so-cheesy-it’ll-make-you-sick love note I wrote for mine, so I’m only showing 7.5 out of my total 8 pages plus the back cover. Here’s what I came up with (these are formatted as pages, we’ll get to that in a minute):
If you want a similar look, it’s actually ridiculously easy to achieve, even for someone who isn’t too skilled in Photoshop like myself. First, put whatever photo or text you want on your background layer. Then, add a Threshold adjustment layer followed by a Gradient Map adjustment layer. You can choose whatever Gradient Map you want or create your own. These two adjustment layers can make literally anything look cool, I swear.
If you want your text to have an ink bleed look to it like mine, that’s also a surprisingly simple process. First, create a new type layer and add whatever text you want. Then, adjust the tracking so that the letters are a little closer together (try -50 tracking and adjust as needed).
Next, open the layer style adjustment tab and add a thick outside stroke. I usually kept mine between 2-3 px, but it all depends on your font and the size of your text.
Once you’re completely satisfied with your text, click Rasterize > Layer Style. There’s really no going back and changing what you’ve typed after this step, so make sure it's exactly what you want.
If you want the edges to be a little rough and imperfect, go to the Filter tab, then navigate to Stylize > Diffuse and adjust accordingly.
Next, add a Gaussian Blur under the Filter tab. This will smooth out your text and make the letters bleed into each other. If you don’t want the edges of your text to be rough, skip the Diffuse step and go straight to the Gaussian Blur.
And there you have it. A very easy way to achieve the ink bleed look.
Lastly, I added some extra texture layers to give my pages a scanned photocopy look. These increase the freshly printed look and look gorgeous on top of the effect created by your Threshold layer. I got them from Andrey Azizov who makes incredibly helpful Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials on his TikTok.
Once you’ve created all of the pages for your booklet plus a back cover, it’s time to put them in the right order to be printed.
4. Creating the CD booklet layout
To make my booklet and covers, I followed along with this tutorial from A Crafter in Training on YouTube, which uses these templates from their OneDrive folder. To start, access the OneDrive and select the Templates folder. From there, download the file named “2 Booklet (new)” and open it in Photoshop.
This booklet template helps you to map out your pages and to make sure your designs are in order before printing them. Simply copy and paste each of your individual pages as new layers, being sure to position each on the correct side (left or right) depending on the order you want your booklet to follow. For example, my first page consisted of my front cover on the right and the back cover of the booklet on the left. That way, when I printed my pages out, this page acted as the outer shell of my booklet, offering a front cover and a back cover to tie the booklet together.
You’ll want to make sure to either extend each of your individual designs beyond the cyan outlines or use the Color Fill tool to cover the blank space with a color from your design. Since my designs were either solid black or solid red, I simply colored in the empty space with one of those two colors. Keep in mind that anything outside of the cyan lines will be removed when you cut out each page to assemble your booklet. Once you have your pages all laid out, merge your layers for each page together and name them Page 1, Page 2, etc. Now, it’s time to divide your pages.
In the tutorial linked above, it's recommended that you divide your pages to make the booklet. You can use the Marquee tool to select one half of the page and then select Layer Via Cut. You do not need to divide the Page 1 or the middle page of your booklet. The tutorial makes this a little difficult to understand, so my advice is to keep in mind that your pages will be printed front and back on each sheet of paper.
For instance, the page with my front cover and back cover of the booklet was printed on one side of the paper and the page with the note (not included above) and a heart design was printed on the back. So when I open my booklet, the note is the first thing you see on the left side of the page and the heart design is the last thing you see on the right side when you’ve reached the end of the booklet.
If this sounds confusing, don’t worry – I was completely lost during this process, yet I still managed to put everything together. To help make it easier to visualize, I recommend cutting up a few small pieces of paper and creating a mini booklet out of them. Envision what you want your end product to look like and label each mini page accordingly. This will help you to put your pages in the correct order.
Don’t forget your back cover. While the back of the back cover doesn’t really matter, it still needs to be formatted through this template to ensure it fits your jewel case.
After you get your pages in the order you want them in, save each individual page as a PNG.
5. Printing your booklet
Finally! You get to see your booklet in physical form. If you want glossy, professional looking paper, I recommend going to a store such as Staples and using one of their special print options. Upload each of your pages to the Staples website in order, making sure to print each one front and back. I chose the Simple Print option then transferred the settings to Professional Print in order to select Gloss Text as my paper. This will give you that shiny, professional look. Once printed, check to ensure that your pages fit in your jewel case. They should slide in perfectly, but double check before you go any further.
A piece of advice: print one or two copies of each page. I messed up several times while cutting the pages of my booklet and needed to use my backups. It’s always good to be prepared.
6. Cutting your pages and assembling your booklet
Grab a craft/art knife and a cutting board of some kind. There are special craft cutting mats you can get, but I just used the opposite side of a random standard cutting board. Take your time cutting each page and try to get as close to the edge as you can to avoid leaving any white space. Your knife should glide through the glossy paper quite easily, just be sure you hold weight on each page so your hand doesn’t slip and ruin your straight line. Cut out your back cover as well.
For me, this was the most difficult part of the process. It took me several tries to get my lines straight (they still aren’t, really), so don’t give up on it. Your next step is to assemble your booklet in the correct order and to find a stapler that can fully open up and still function. Staple your pages together on the spine, using something foamy (I used a spare nail buffer) to prevent the staple from going through and reaching the other side of the page. Release your foamy barrier from each staple and use something heavy to press down either side of the staple to make them lie flat in your booklet.
Place your booklet and back cover in your jewel case and there you have it! Your very own handmade CD.
Cover Photo by Brynn Fussell. Edited by Madison Case.