Gift cards are an ideal present idea for almost every holiday. Let's make yours more personal to someone who loves crafting and enjoys Christmas. Follow our step-by-step guide on how to make a gift card holder from colored cardstock. You'll need your Cricut die-cut machine and an SVG file.
The instructions below are not for beginners, but it still might be your first project. Everyone starts at one point, right? We are using a DIY gift card holder template of an adorable boxer dog, known as a perfect family pet, textured cardstock, and some other materials.
Here is a list of things you'll need to follow our "How to make a gift card holder guide (feel free to substitute the paper colors and types according to your wants):
- Gift card holder SVG file you can download from Digital Art Dreams;
- Textured cardstock of several colors (red, brown, grey, white, and cream);
- Smooth cardstock of white and black colors (for dog eyes);
- Glitter cardstock of white, black, and brown colors (for card pocket, dog nose and eyes);
- Cricut die-cut machine (we used Cricut Explore Air 2, but you can use Explore 3, Maker or Maker 3, or Venture) with Fine-Point blade and a scoring stylus or wheel;
- Weeding tool;
- Blue LightGrip mat (12 x 12 inches);
- Glue;
- Chalk ink pads (optional);
- Brushes for chalk inks;
- Micro pens (white, brown, and black).
This Cricut gift card holder project is not designed for Cricut Joy or Joy Xtra because it requires a 12 x 12 inches mat.
How to Make Gift Card Holder
While our DIY gift card holder template SVG file is of high quality and mainly prepared for use in Design Space, you are still required to add one slight change once you upload it to DS.
Step 1. Once you have the Christmas gift card holder SVG file, launch the Design Space and upload it there.
Step 2. It is necessary to change the cut lines on the card holder pocket to scoring lines and attach them to the card after you ungroup the project.
Step 3. Attach the half-circle cut lines to the insert part.
Step 4. Prepare the textured, smooth, and glitter cardstock and your LightGrip mat, and begin cutting all the pieces (and scoring the primary card holder). You can change colors in Design Space depending on how you combine the pieces for your cardstock.
Step 5. Your future Cricut gift card holder contains 48 pieces (the smallest are the 13 boxer dog nails).
Step 6. Before assembling the DIY gift card holder, you can add some shades to the textured cardstock with chalk ink pads and brushes. Digital Art Dreams prefers darkening the edges, as it gives a cute finished look to gift card holders and scrapbook embellishments. You can test the shades on the paper scraps you most likely have in your crafting room. Once you are happy with the colors, slightly apply darker shades to the brown and cream cardstock pieces of our beautiful boxer dog and red cardstock used for the Santa hat.
Step 7. Assembly is a big part of every "how to make gift card holder" instruction, so be extra careful while gluing all the parts in the correct order. Since this gift card holder is for Christmas, we assemble the insert first. This insert has a Santa hat on top, so let's glue the Santa hat, which is pretty simple.
Glue the white ball to the red folded tip of the hat.
Glue the upper part of the folded tip to the rest of the hat (it has a cut-out star) and attach this part to the top of the white glitter insert (it repeats the hat shape for you). It is best not to glue the white ball part to the insert; let this end stay adhesive-free.
Step 8. Slide your gift card into the DIY insert you have just created. This part of our gift card holder is done.
Step 9. Let's assemble the cardstock boxer dog embellishment. Start with the brown body.
Step 10. Add the white fur.
Step 11. Assemble the boxer's face.
Step 12. Glue the shiny black nose to the face and add the eyes. Stop for a moment to enjoy this lovely dog face.
Step 13. Assemble and glue the paws. It is best to find and first match all the pieces.
Step 14. Add the dog collar with a tag.
Step 15. The hardest part is to glue all the tiny nails, but the final result is totally worth it! This Cricut gift card holder will look adorable once your boxer gets its small sparkly nails.
Step 16. Fold the scored parts of the gift card holder and glue this "pocket."
Step 17. Before positioning the dog on the gift card holder, we suggest you place the insert part with the Santa hat inside and see where to glue the dog embellishment so it looks like your boxer is wearing the Santa hat.
Step 18. After the dog is secured to the gift card holder, you can finally glue its tail.
Step 19. The last part to glue is the hat's white fur. It has to be on the dog's head, but it should also be positioned to match the Santa hat when the insert is inside the gift card holder. Apply the adhesive to the lower part of the white fur and glue it to the boxer's head.
Step 20. When done correctly, your gift card holder consists of two separate parts: a card with a boxer dog wearing a white fur piece on its head and an insert with the gift card and Santa's hat.
Step 21. When you insert the gift card inside the card holder, place the white ball over the boxer's face and it will look as if the dog really wears the Santa hat!
Step 22. You can add white accents (and brown/black accents if you want) to the dog's body and nose using micro pens. Enjoy!
You can make many fantastic Christmas gift card holder ideas with your Cricut and various SVG files. May your every project be unique and super cute!