Tutorial Review: Gift Card Holder

Hello!

We do so much research for our projects to get inspired to do new things. That research comes from Google searches, Pintrest, and YouTube just to name a few. It's not uncommon to start with a tutorial as it is and tweak as you go. Today we're going to be looking at a tutorial I found a while back and just finally tried out for some graduation cards this year. 

Her name is Gina K and her YouTube account is StampTV. She's very talented and clearly she has been doing this a long time. Her style is very much like mine, I only wish I had all of her toys. Some day!

Today we'll be talking about her two-part tutorial for gift cards. It was very well done, of course, but there were a few things I tweaked along the way. First of all, I wanted to do mine in a more masculine look because I had a couple of guys graduating high school and I didn't want to give the traditional card to them.

She ran through the measurements pretty quick so I had to go back a couple of times to get all of them written down. I do like the sizes because you can get 2 gift card holders from one 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock. You can't beat saving paper! Here's they are:

Base Cardstock: 4 1/4" x 10"

• Score at: 3", 4", 5", 8"

Patterned Paper:

(Inside)

• 2 - 2 3/4" x 4"
• 1 - 3 3/4" x 4"
• 2 - 3/4" x 4"

(Outside)

• 2 - 2 3/4" x 4"
• 1 - 1 3/4" x 4"  (Top flap)

So here's what I'm using:

I used basic brown cardstock with my BoBunny Trail Mix collection 6" x 6" cardstock. I thought it turned out perfectly! Everyone who saw the finished product immediately knew it was for a guy and loved the patterns! I'll definitely be saving what I have left for more guy cards. So next I cut out all of my papers and scored my bases to match what she said:

Next she suggests using a corner rounder on all of the base corners and on the top and bottom patterned papers for both sides. I totally agree with this because I love the effect rounded corners give. Then everything gets glued on.

Outside patterns

It's a little hard to see in the picture, but on the outside patterns picture you can see there is some shiny red tape (super permanent double sided tape) on the outside edges on the blank areas. They were left intentionally blank because you won't be able to see the inside of the pocket for the card. So here we wanted to be sure not to put the adhesive too far in because then the card wouldn't fit. The only addition (not pictured here) that I ended up making was that I added a line of red tape along the outside edge because when I put the sides together and later added my card, I found that it could easily slip out. So this way it can be completely tucked inside the card and I felt much better about them possibly carrying around the gift card in the holder.

Inside patterns

Next she had everyone turn the card so that newly formed pocket stuck away from the card in order to make the slit for the card to tuck into. She had everyone cut 1/4" off of the pocket which looked ok, but you lose the layered effect on that area. I decided to just take an Xacto knife and my metal ruler and cut a slice on the score line the width of my card. it was invisible once folded and I got to keep my layered look.

Where she decided to move onto closing the card, I felt like it needed an area where I could write something. So I used the Spellbinders Label 17 and punched out a couple of light brown cardstock pieces for my sentiments  I "aged" them with some Tom Holtz Archival ink in Tea and Tuxedo Black. This is a hand done process so no two are ever the same, which I really like.

    

Now I was ready to move on to the outside. She stamped a rounded sentiment and punched it out with a round punch and layered it onto a ribbon horizontally with the flap side in front. I thought that looked nice, but I made a couple of changes for myself. I had a really cute "You Did It" stamp I wanted to use and I used it with the Label 17 collection on white and light brown. I used a very bright shiny wide green ribbon as my focal color splash. Since my sentiment was more vertical, I decided to wrap my card vertically and I placed the stamped sentiment on the "back" because I wanted it to be the focus. I really like the finished product!

 

All in all it was a great tutorial! This is definitely a pattern I will use for years to come! It is such an easy and quick card holder. I love all of the options you could do with the card. I also love how many different occasions you could use this for: Weddings, Anniversaries, Graduations, Just Because, the list goes on! And while I didn't make any great big changes, I made enough that it looks and feels like mine.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial review/breakdown of a some grad cards I made! Thank you for checking out our blog and we hope to hear from you soon. Don't forget to check out our YouTube channel and our Instagram page!

The 3 Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce

Masculine Shirt & Tie Card

Hello!

Today we'll be waking through a step-by-step tutorial of a great looking shirt and tie card for the men in our lives. 

We were going through Pintrest (a ridiculous obsession; if you've never been on there DON'T GO! Save yourself!) looking for ideas for some men's cards that we needed when we happened upon one that seemed pretty easy and pretty cute at the same time! There weren't any dimensions with the one we found so here is what we came up with. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 

Let's get started...

Supplies You'll Need:

• Base Cardstock: 8 1/2" x 6 3/4"
• "Shirt" Cardstock:  1" x 5 1/2"  AND  4" x 5 1/2"
• "Tie" Patterned Paper: 2" x 2" AND 2" x 4 1/2"
• 1 Brad
• Adhesive
• Scissors (or cutting board)
• Scoreboard & bone folder
• Hole puncher

*** In this tutorial you'll probably notice that the "shirt" has texture on it. This was creating using a Cuttlebug and the Polka-dots folder. If you don't have one, but like the effect (as do we) that it gives; Michael's Craft Store (and probably Hobby Lobby or other craft store) has paper in stock by Bazzill Basics Paper that gives the exact same effect but it's already done! It's open stock and in lots of beautiful colors and if it's not on sale, it's $0.79 but check the website for a coupon to save you some money! And often they do have sales on open stock cardstock, so just do your homework first to save $$$. Enjoy! ***

** I apologize that it's a little blurred.**

Step 1: Take your Base card stock and lay the 8 1/2" wide side is against the measuring line. Score at 4 1/4" mark. Fold and run the bone folder against the fold line so that it's nice and crisp. Set aside for now.

Step 2: Take the 1" x 5 1/2" shirt paper out. This will be your shirt's collar. Lay it in front of you as shown. Mark the top of the 5 1/2" (the farthest side from you) at 1 1/2" from each side. Without turning the paper at all, we're going to make marks on the bottom of the 5 1/2" (the closest side to you). Mark the bottom at 1 1/4" from each side.

**I used heavy mark lines to show up on camera, but you'll want to make sure any marks get erased so that they don't show up on your final project.**

Step 3: Put your newly marked paper on your scoreboard. We're not going to be using the measuring line at the top of the board. Here you can see us lining up the marks to a ridge on a scoreboard then we'll score them. After one side is done, we'll line up the other marks and do the same.

Step 4:  Now we fold our lines. Before running the bone folder over your lines, you'll want to check that your shirt collar corners line up nicely. Sometimes things just come out a little wonky. So once you achieve this ... crease those folds!

Step 5: Now we move onto the tie! First we'll be working with the knot of the tie. Take your 2" x 2" paper and lay it in front of you. We're going to mark 1" on the side closest to you and then use that mark to draw a line to each opposite corner. You should now see a triangle. Cut out the sides, leaving the large triangle center as your knot.

Step 6: Now we'll work on the base of the tie. Take your 2" x 4 1/2" patterned tie paper and lay it in front of you so that the 2" portion is closest. You're again going to mark the 1" line on the side closest to you. Then you'll turn the paper 90 degrees and mark 1" up from the 2" side then go across from it and make the same mark. Return your paper to where it started. You should have the side with the three marks closest to you. On the side farthest from you, we're going to mark a 1/2" in from each side. 

Step 7: After you cut, you should end up with the above scraps and the perfect center tie!

Step 8: Lets start assembling!!! First we're going to attach the knot to the collar. Turn your collar over and place some adhesive (our favorite adhesive is our Advanced Tape Glider or ATG and you'll see it referenced a lot in future tutorials) on the collar's corners careful to only put adhesive where your knot will cover. We're going to line up the widest part of the triangle knot against the bottom of the collar line. Centering it in between the lapels.

Step 9: Attach the collar and tie to your shirt. On this shirt, one side has raised texture and the other has an embossed effect where the dots are inverted. You need to decide now which you want to be seen on your card. Which ever side you DO want, lay face up. Turn your collar and tie face down and give a generous amount of adhesive. Then line up the bottom of the "back" collar to the top of your shirt. Your collar should extend above your shirt.

Step 10: Now we're going to make a hole for our "tie clip" or in craft terms a brad. In most cases a hole punch would work great for making a hold for brads, however in this case, where I want the hole is too far for my hole punch to reach. Thankfully I have a trusty pin kept near my craft desk for such emergencies. 

Here's where we are now. Looks pretty good! Let's keep going!

Step 11: Now we're going to apply adhesive to the whole back side. Really go to town on this one because we want it to stick really good to our card back.

 

 

Voila! Our finished masculine card! We love it and we hope you do too!



**This isn't a standard size card. If you would like a tutorial on a matching envelope please feel free to let us know! Thanks!**

The 3 Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce