Wood Gift Card Holders

Earlier this year, Cordel, a viewer to the show, sent me a gift card holder he made. I really thought it was a great idea! We buy gift cards for people because we just aren’t sure what they would like. Here’s a great way to make it a little special. These wood gift card holders are easy to make and don’t require a lot of wood, so you might as well make a bunch!

This video is sponsored by Ebates. Sign up for free and start saving money while shopping online!

First, I cut out a shallow groove the width of a gift card using a straight bit in my router. I used the card to adjust the height of the bit.

I set up a stop block to my fence so that the board would extend past the length of the gift card and stop. I set it up to make a groove longer than necessary. Once the card holder is assembled, I can cut it down to size.

Then it was just a matter of making a series of cuts, moving the fence each time until the board had a slot the width of a gift card.

In order to safely cut the thin sides of the gift card holder, I constructed a simple sled with a scrap piece of plywood and a 2×4.

This gave me a square, flat surface I could hot glue the work piece onto. I cut two thin slices then glued them together.

Finally, I cut the card holder down to a smaller size, cut out a finger pull, and finished it with spray lacquer.