All That Glitters: Graduation Gift Card

Hello Again!

We hope everyone is having good weather! They say it's June here in Indiana but it feels more like September when this is being written. There is a saying in Northern Indiana: If you don't like the weather, just stick around and it'll change. This is saying is no joke around here, especially during the "warmer" months. Just the other day we were at high 80s by 10am all the way into the night. The next day we didn't even hit 70s until late afternoon! Such a crazy "summer" we're having! 

Good thing that the weather in our craft rooms is always lovely! Today we'll be working on this adorable gift card holder:

This is an unbelievably easy card to make, which makes it really fun to add things like sparkle paper to add an extra flare to it! So lets get started!

What I used:

• Glitter Paper (Glacier Springs Collection) by Colorbök
• This is Huge Set stamp by Art Impressions
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities (Labels 17 Collection)
• Scoreboard, Scissors, Adhesive, Cuttlebug (AKA Piglet in 3Chicks), Tim Holtz Archival Black ink

The arrows show what pieces I used from each collection.
I love all 3 sets and I'll be using them all eventually. :)

The first thing I should mention is that only one side of this paper is glittery. I'm sure it was meant solely for scrapbooks but I like to be rebellious and do things my own way. This card would probably look just as great with a black outside and white inside (the white is a really soft to the touch, yet has a crisp white color so that is very nice) but I wanted a totally blacked out card. I just want the glitter to be the focus of the card and I felt like the white was so bright it would be lost as soon as the card was opened.

If you don't want to do this double up technique, then all you'll need to have is a 6" x 4 3/4" paper, scored at the 3" mark and you're ready to move on. If you do like the doubled up paper (this really does make the card stronger even if you're not interested in the blackout technique) then keep reading!

I cut a sheet of the 12" x 12" black glitter paper into a 4 3/4" x 12" strip. I then scored the paper at 3", 6" and 9". I did a double score (meaning I flipped the paper to the other side and scored again) to really soften the 3" line for easier folding. When I do this card again, I'll probably end up double scoring all of the lines. 

The next thing is adding glue to all four squares. I didn't add any glue to the score lines because I wanted to be able to have some give there. Keeping the page laying in front of me as it is photographed above, I folded the paper completely in half to take the paper from 12" to 6" long. I really worked on making the paper smooth, getting all the glue evenly distributed. Then I folded the card in half again so that it became it's final size of 3" x 4 3/4". Then I tucked it firmly between some heavy books to dry overnight. (Glue and I don't always get along and I wanted no chance of warping or wavy pages.) Ta da:

Just a tip: If you're doing a card like this where it's possible for stray white edges to pop up, don't panic! Just grab a black sharpie and color those edges black (or whatever color you're working with in the majority) and it will all blend so no one can tell! :)

We next move on to the "pop up" part of the card that holds the gift card. For that we use more black glitter paper cut to 5 1/2" x 4 1/2". With the 5 1/2" laying in front of you, score at 3/4", 1 1/4", 2 1/4", 3 1/4", 4 1/4" and 4 3/4".

For the sake of the camera I left the inside white , but on the finished
product you'll notice the inside is also black. I repeated these steps
on a flat black paper and glued it to the inside.

Before I glued the outside tabs together I really give these scores some good folding and creasing because it has to be able to go from fully popped open to fully flat in an easy motion. After I felt like it moved good, I started folding at the score lines inward toward the center creating a square that had an extra "side" on the inside. After some experimenting I found that glue worked the best because the glitter would coat any tape and then pop open after some test folding. I again wanted this part to sit overnight for strength before I fully assembled this card. I would recommend using something to keep the tabs together while they dry. I used some bobby pins since there are so many lying around my house. They worked very well! Whatever adhesive you use, make sure not to go too far in or your card won't fit. 

In the picture you can see the white from the glue,
it dried clear so you couldn't even see it. I love the
Martha Stewart craft glue for that very reason!

Next I punched out all of my layers using the white and black glitter paper and my "Piglet". I also stamped my image onto flat white paper so it could dry while I was doing this step. I layered white glitter, then black glitter, then flat white. I love the effect it gave! (Shown at the end.)

I also punched out a flat white paper for my sentiment on the inside. I wanted enough room to actually write something other than just "congratulations" but I was very limited on space because of my pop up. So after some thinking I decided that I would just line up and cut off the top and bottoms. It still looks great and now it fits like a glove! Which is a great reminder that I don't have to use things as packaged.

So now it's time for the fun part...putting all these pieces together to show you my finished product! A really beautiful pop-up gift card holder! I'll definitely be using this basic idea for many years to come! Let us know if you end up using it as well!

Thanks so much for checking out our blog! We hope you really are enjoying our posts half as much as we are enjoying making them for you! Give us a shout if you have any questions or requests!

The Three Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce