Gift Card Holders by Lori

So, hubby was in charge of getting some gift cards for a couple of nieces for Christmas.  Not knowing the importance of a good gift card holder, he got cards that are a weird size; twice as tall as a normal gift card.  What to do?  Lucky for me, the Wild Card Cricut cartridge has lots of cool envelopes that can easily be adapted to a gift card holder.  Just follow my steps below and you can create a gift card holder for any occasion using either the card or the envelope.

I chose the Christmas Tree envelope (it's on pg. 74 with the ornament card) as it seemed well suited to resizing.  You'll need to use either Design Studio or a Gypsy for this.  I used a Gypsy, so my directions are for that, but they should be very similar in DS.  First, place the Blackout feature image on the virtual mat.  Using measurements from your actual gift card, size the image up until the plain center section is larger than your gift card.  Here's a picture to show you what I mean:

Next, unlock your aspect ratio (on the Gypsy, this is the little icon that looks like a chain under the Height & Width boxes) so you can adjust one size at a time.  Make that empty center section a little larger than your gift card all the way around.  Add another layer to your virtual mat and add the regular image - no feature buttons on.  Resize it to match the blackout version.  Finally, add a third layer for the liner and any add-ons needed (my envelope needed a star and garland) and resize each to match the other layers.  Cut in desired colors of cardstock.

For the tree to show up well on the envelope, cut just the tree from the regular image envelope and adhere that to the Blackout feature envelope you cut.  Now is the time to cut tabs in the liner piece to hold your gift card if desired.  I have a tool for this, but you could also cut by hand with an Exacto knife, or just skip it if you don't want to cut.  Then adhered the liner and any add-ons.  Finally, use a Scor-Pal to score all of the fold lines on the envelope.  The little cut marks on the design make it super easy to score them in the right place.  Now add your gift card under the tabs or just stick it in with a Glue Dot.  Fold the envelope closed and just use a couple of Glue Dots to adhere.

Ta-da!  Since these were for teens, I stopped right here.  For someone more appreciative, you could add some bling in those round ornament cuts, using some Kaisercraft Pearls or Rhinestones.

Items available at Cutters Creek:

• Cricut Expression
• Wild Card Cricut cartridge
• Cardstock (there are tons of choices - just search "cardstock"!)
• Scor-Pal
• Glue Dots
• Kaisercraft Pearls and Rhinestones