Gift Card Holder

One of my colleagues asked me to create gift card holders for her to use to give as special thank yous to community members who have helped her out. I based this design on a swap I received at the VA Beach regionals (no name on the back of the swap to credit, unfortunately). It's a simple but impressive presentation for a gift card and uses half of a piece of cardstock to create. Here's how to make one.



Cut cardstock to 5" by 8 1/2". Score cardstock at 3" and 6" to form three sections. One section will be slightly smaller than the others. This will become the front flap when you're done. The other panels will hold the gift card and an insert card with a message for the recipient.






Decorate one side of the cardstock. I've found it easiest to use SU!'s jumbo wheels for this. They cover a lot of surface quickly. If you'd like, you can use a corner rounder punch to round the corners of the cardstock.







To make an insert card, cut a piece of cardstock to approximately 3 1/2" by 2 1/8". If you'd like, you can round the corners as I did here. I printed my message using a word processing program, but it certainly could be handwritten. I punched out one of SU!'s round tab punches and added decoration ("for you" and a brad), then attached it to the top right corner of the insert card for the recipient to use to pull the card from the pocket.




Using the slit punch, make two slits in the bottom of the three sections of the gift card holder base. To do this, center the slit punch along the side of the bottom section of the cardstock and slide the punch in as far as it will go. Repeat this on the opposite side of the cardstock to make a set of parallel slots to hold the gift card.




To make a pocket for the insert card, cut a piece of cardstock to 4 1/2" by 2 1/4". I used a scalloped scissors to cut the edge off for decoration.







For additional decoration and contrast, I adhered a narrow strip of patterned paper (4 1/2 by 3/4") to the top of the scalloped edge.









To attach the pocket to the gift card holder, I used pieces of Sticky Strip. Regular adhesive didn't hold well enough to withstand inserting and removing the card. Be sure to place the Sticky Strip fairly close to the edges of the pocket so that the insert card will still fit in the pocket.




Here's what the inside of the (almost finished) gift card holder will look like with the insert pocket, insert card, and gift card in place.











To finish the gift card holder, fold the section with the gift card up, then fold the shortest section down. Make a "belly band" from a 2" by 7" piece of patterned cardstock. Wrap the band around the gift card holder and secure it with adhesive. Decorate the band if you'd like by adding a tag or ribbon. On mine, I layered the small tag punch over the large tag punch. I punched out the small tag so that it is two tags together with a hinge at the top so you can write the recipient's name inside the flap . Let me know if you'd like directions for doing that and I'll post them tomorrow.

Materials Used:
From Stampin' Up!: Polka Dots & Petals and Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp sets; Petals jumbo wheel and handle; Certainly Celery and Brocade Blue Classic inks; Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue, and Whisper White cardstock; Rebecca designer paper; round tab punch; small corner rounder; slit punch; Sticky Strip; regular and small tag punch; scalloped scissors (retired)
Other: brads (Joann)