Tree trimmings gift card holder...

Just a quick post as today is going to be jammed packed with work, my stamp class and a finals swim meet- and now SNOW in Houston- absolute craziness! It appears there are only two prime weekends for parties and holiday events each year and there are way too many competing events this year- having to pick and choose is terrible- I want to celebrate at them all!

What I want to share today is a really quick and easy template for gift card holders. Goodness knows we all need a lot of these at this time of year- teachers, secretaries, Mr. Brown from UPS who delivers goodies to us all year round...

This starts with a half sheet of 8.5 x 11" card stock cut the short way across to give a piece 5.5 x 8". Score and fold the sheet at 2" from one end and 2.5" from the other end. Glue the edges of the 2" fold up to make the pocket. Now comes the fun part- decorating it!

I like to cover the top and bottom flaps with patterned paper, but you can also dry emboss or stamp background images like snowflakes, etc on them if you prefer. I used coordinating papers from the Christmas Cocoa collection from Stampin' Up which go well with the Soft Suede card base I used. Once that is done, you need to make a vertical flap that will be used to close the gift card holder shut. Here I have stamped one of the ornaments from the Tree Trimmings set, topped with a ribbon bow, and layered it onto coordinating card stock. I glued only the top half of this image to the card and added a piece of velcro to the lower half to keep the card closed.

I stamped a greeting from the Snow Swirled set and punched it out with the wide oval punch. I layered the greeting onto a Soft Suede piece cut on my Sizzix machine with a nested die and added some rhinestones for sparkle. These are super quick to make and are much more personal that the ones you get with the gift card- my husband has already requested 20!

Hope you have a greet weekend and keep warm!

Supplies:
Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Snow Swirled
Paper: Soft Suede, Real Red, Whisper White, Christmas Cocoa
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Clear EP, heat tool, brown dotted organdy ribbon, velcro, wide label punch, nested die, Sizzix machine, rhinestones