Gift Card Holders

Gift card holders are very popular to make right now because EVERYONE GIVES GIFT CARDS!  Gift cards are the greatest thing since sliced bread in my opinion.  I even bought one for myself at Archiver's for Christmas because they had a "Buy a $25 gift card, get $5 free".  I thought that would be a great present for me to give to me!  You know...they say you are supposed to love yourself first.  HAHA!

Anyway, I love gift cards...I like getting them and I like giving them.  They are especially wonderful for giving when you feel you need to give a little something but you have NOOOO idea what that person would like.  AND...with the rising cost of postage...well, mailing packages just has gotten so expensive...a gift card can be mailed for the price of one stamp (which is another story in itself...what is with the cost of postage these days???).

I bought a Card Keeper Stamp set by Art Imaginations the other day.  It came with 4 rubber cling stamps that stamp beautifully.  You can see the assortment of Card Keepers HERE.  I bought the one that includes a Happy Birthday stamp but this gift card stamp set could be used for any occasion with the right papers!  I made 2 and timed myself.  They took me less than 15 minutes to make...and I was not racing.  My desk was a bit messy so probably 7 minutes and 12 seconds were spent looking for my scissors! HAHA!  Seriously...they do look work up quickly. 

They are supposed to look like little gift bags.  Isn't that cute?

Here they are made with Bo Bunny papers (love that little mini stack of snowy papers!):

Here's another one made with the same line of papers with the gift card in it:

I basically cut the Kraft base to 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 to fit an A2 envelope.  And before Sunshine Honeybee emails me for exact measurements (!)....just funnin' ya, Sunshine.....(we go a long ways back, we do!) I just eyeballed the layers.  The top layer is stamped and then cut around, holes punched out, and I put some twine loosely through to make it look like a gift bag handle.  I used some tissue paper affixed behind the top layer and sort of ruffled it to give the "gift bag with tissue" look.  The stamp set came with the little tag stamp so I just stamped it, punched a hole in it and cut it out.  Edges were inked a bit because this paper already has the look of some edges inked and once you cut off part of it...well it looks naked!   And in the layer above that says "Snowfall" I cut a slit just slightly larger than the gift card.  So actually the gift card slides behind that layer.  I pop dotted the gift bag layer on top of it to give it a little more dimension and pop.

Easy peasy as they say (well, I say it a lot...it really was easy and I think they are so cute).  The stamp set was a little pricey at $20.99 but I had a 30% off coupon which softened the blow and I really think this is one set I will use over and over again. 

Now I need to make one for my own gift card! :)

Oh, and lastly...when I looked back at my post from the other day on my hand crafted bag/boxes I realized the photo was straight on and you couldn't see the sides.  So here's another one I made which shows the side:

This is 3 inches deep...if you scored at 2 inches all the way around your bag/box would be bigger but narrower, of course. 

Happy Crafting!!!

BTW, those quilted placemats?  My mother made those for me about 25 years ago.  Old, faded...but I still put them out EVERY year on my kitchen table.  They may be dated but I love them!!!