Gift Card Holders Tutorial

 Who doesn't love getting a gift card for their favorite store? Although easy to give and get, gift cards can sometimes feel a bit impersonal. So we've come up with these adorable gift card holders that let you personalize your gift a bit.

Here's what you'll need:

One 4" x 11" piece of  felt or wool felt
Two - two hole buttons
A piece of decorative ribbon or tag
Scalloped scissors or pinking shears
10" Baker's twine

Mark a 3" x 10" rectangle on a piece of felt. We used wool felt for this project.

At one end trace an arch. I used a spool of ribbon for the half circle.

You should have something that looks like this.

Now cut with scalloped scissors just inside the drawn line. You won't want to see any pencil line on the scallops.

Measure and mark in 1.5" from the long side edge and 2" up from the bottom (straight edge). This will be the placement mark for your bottom button.

Measure and mark 1" from the curved end for the top button. Both buttons should be 1.5" from the long side edges (centered).

Dig through your button collection and find two matching buttons with preferably just two holes.

Some of the newer machines have a button sew-on function. If you do, select it. If you don't drop your machines feed dogs, set the stitch width to 4mm and the stitch length to zero. If your machine has this function everything will be done for you automatically. Did you know that almost all buttons, regardless of their size and age have holes that are the same distance apart? They do. Trust me.

Place the button sew on foot on the top of your button and hand turn the fly wheel so you can check the placement of the holes. It goes without saying that you won't want the needle to hit the button. You may find it helpful to put a bit of glue on the bottom of the button to hold it in place.

The newer feet have these little rubber feet which holds the button firmly in position. Now sew. The button sew on stitch does a nice securing stitch, a few side to side stitches and then another securing stitch. You may want to repeat the series of stitches to be sure the button is secure. See how it sews over that silver pin in the middle of the button? That creates a thread shank which allows fabric (or in this case twine) to fit smoothly around and under the button.

Once you've completed the series of stitches slide the stitches off the pin of the foot and clip the treads leaving a long tail. Turn your felt piece over, pull the threads to the back  and tie the treads off to secure.

Repeat with the second button.

Now dig through the tangled mess that you call your ribbon stash looking for the perfect ribbon to use as a tag.

Fold the bottom up 3.5 inches and sew the side seams catching the cute ribbon or tag in the seam as you sew.

Tie a piece of Baker's twine to one of the buttons and that's it. Done.

 Here's a card holder for Valentines Day

For teenagers

men

sweet treats

birthdays.

The possibilities are endless.

My thought was to do one for every month of the year. Little gifts all year long. A kind of gift of the month if you will, that you can start in December. Wouldn't that be fun to do for someone who is hard to buy for? Who wouldn't want to receive a different gift card for twelve months in a personalized holder made by you?