Dare to Make It: Holiday

How to Make a Business Card Holder . . . From Playing Cards

Diane Gilleland, contributor

26 users recommend

You can make these cases from standard playing cards or from loteria, tarot, or novelty cards. Anything that fits a business card works!

Diane Gilleland

You can choose playing cards for your guy's favorite numbers or suits, his hobbies, or assemble a poker hand!

Diane Gilleland

The case is nice and compact to fit in his pocket. Download the template and get making!

Diane Gilleland

You can make these cases from standard playing cards or from loteria, tarot, or novelty cards. Anything that fits a business card works!

Photo: Diane Gilleland

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If you're looking for a fun, compact gift to give your guy, try making this business card holder from playing cards.

Let's talk lamination: If you don't have a laminator at home to use for this project, call around to your local copy shops—many of them have self-service laminators and pouches.

. . . And let's talk cards: This project is designed around a standard-sized playing card. Feel free, however, to experiment with novelty playing cards, loteria cards, and tarot cards. Just keep in mind that these may be slightly different sizes. I used some loteria and tarot cards in the samples above, and I needed to trim them down a little to fit the template.

What you'll need:

• Downloadable template (see link below)
• Five playing cards (per case)
• A sheet of 65# cardstock
• Metal straightedge
• X-Acto knife and cutting surface
• Bone folder
• Glue stick
• Poly fiberfill
• Five-mil lamination pouch
• 1/8-inch hole punch
• 1mm stretchy beading cord
• Craft glue
• Scissors
• E6000 adhesive
• Masking tape

Download and print the template. Select five cards.

To begin this project, download this template and print it onto cardstock. Then, gather five cards. Three of them will show prominently on your finished case, so use face cards or really cool backs. The other two cards will show on the inside of the case, so you'll probably want their backs to show.

(When I make these cases, I save the face cards, aces, and jokers for the outsides, then use up the random number cards for the insides.)

Score the cardstock on the printed lines.

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Smocked baby...
babeeni

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Comments (7)

marthaom writes: This is such a cool project! I'd love to try making it, but I can't seem to locate the link to download the template - is the template still available?
Posted: 11:49 am on December 19th

CoffeePotPeople writes: Oh, my goodness, Diane. You have just made my day. I went to bed last night thinking about the dozens and dozens of card decks we have (my hubby went through a "phase", lol) and wondering what I could do with them, craft-wise. Yay! This is perfect.

A thought on the process: It occurred to me that the glueing up might be stabilized if you filled the case with extra playing cards beforehand. I'm going to try that; if it doesn't work, or do anything helpful, I'll let you know.
Posted: 12:04 pm on January 13th

Sister_Diane writes: phunkymama, I used what is probably a heavy-duty laminator at my local copy shop. I used 5 mil pouches, which sealed fine at the edges, although I did need to cut the laminate 1/8" from all edges to incorporate a slight gap around the very edges of the playing cards. If you have access to the 5 mil laminate, perhaps that would work better for you. Please let me know!
Posted: 9:55 pm on December 29th

phunkymama writes: Can I ask what kind of laminator you're using for this project? I used Scotch 3 mil pouches in my Scotch laminator, and I can't get it to seal well. The thickness of the playing cards is making it so that my edges won't seal.
Posted: 3:22 pm on December 27th

Sister_Diane writes: chibimaddy, I've been trying to see your posting, but this link doesn't take me there! Can you give it to me again?
Posted: 12:02 am on December 16th

prpldy writes: I love this...and will be making one for myself. Thanks for the wonderful instructions and the template.
Posted: 12:33 pm on December 14th

chibimaddy writes: Thanks so much for a wonder project!! I saw this early in the morning, and just had to try it! It's wonderful.

I made some modifications to make it personal for me, and I uploaded pics so you could see.

http://www.craftstylish.com/item/32524/how-to-make-a-business-card-holder-from-playing-cards-with-modifications

Thank you so much Diane!!!

xo Maddy
Posted: 5:35 pm on December 13th

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