Tuesday Tutorial: Gift Card Holders {with special guest, Jackie}

I have been so blessed with some wonderfully talented guest posters for the past few Tuesday Tutorials. This tute is just as good as the last guest post of the flower headband. Jackie is here today to show us how to make some super cute gift card holders (or, as you'll see, holders for other things as well). I'll let Jackie tell you the rest. Here she is...

Hi everyone! I'm Jackie of Jacabean Designs, and I'm so excited to be a guest here today :) A little about me...I'm a full-time graphic designer. I love to read, scrap, craft, bake, and have a serious addiction to sweets...especially chocolate! I'm married to a wonderful guy who puts up with my crafting messes, and even gives me a craft challenge from time to time. My favorite color is yellow. I love digital scrapbooking, and also design digital scrapbook kits at Brownie Scraps. Want more on digital scrapbooking? Stop by my blog and say Hi: jacabean.blogspot.com.

Today, I'll be sharing my gift card holder tutorial with you!

I posted a super mini gift card holder tutorial just after Christmas. I decided to make some more, and took pictures this time to show you how it's done. It's super easy, and I LOVE how they turned out! Want a peek? Here they are!

They're so easy to make, you'll never want to give a gift card in a regular car again! Ready? Here goes...

First things first, cut 2 pieces of felt for the holder. The first should be 3" x 5", and the second, slightly shorter at 3" x 4". If you've got a rotary cutter, get it out! This makes for quick and easy cuts.

Next, lays the shorter piece on top of the longer, lining up the sides and bottoms. Pin and sew. Three pins is all it take. And if you don't have a sewing machine, don't fret! These are so small that you could probably hand stitch it quicker than it took me to take out my machine, get it threaded and sew.

The picture above shows a straight stitch. I like the look of the zigzag stitch too, even though mine always turn out a bit messy. You can see both below:

Now that you're stitched up, remove the pins and fold in half longways, with the inside facing in. Cut a small slit about a quarter of an inch down from the top. This slit is where you'll string your ribbon, so try not to make it any wider than your ribbon. Felt gives a little, so err on the side of too small vs. too big.

I also like to trim the corners off of the top edge to give my holders a tag shape (as you'll see below).  Now for the fun part! Let's decorate!!! Grab whatever you have on-hand and go to town. BTW, my hot glue gun is my best friend. Other than sewing the felt together, everything else is attached with hot glue. It doesn't get much easier than that!

After you're done decorating, string your ribbon thru the slit you made at the top, gather both ends of the ribbon and knot as one. You could also tie it in a bow, or whatever else you choose.

 DONE! Ready to see more up close pics of my creations?    

And this is one left from Christmas, which has been currently re-assigned as my makeshift iPod holder, earbuds and all! Yeah, i need to make it a home, but for now, this is keeping it from getting scratched up in my purse :)

Well that's all for now! If you make some gift card holders, I'd love to see! link them up here. Happy crafting!

Thanks to Jackie for stopping by today! Hop on over to Jacabean Designs and tell her thanks for the awesome tutorial today!