optimistic scrappiness: gift card phone stand

Phone Stand made from Recycled Gift Card

In this tutorial, I will show you how to take an old gift card and turn it into something fun and useful. This isn’t my idea – I found a photo someone else had posted online, but I cannot remember where I found it… It is my idea, however, to use the larger gift cards rather than the smaller, regular sized cards. There’s just more room to let your inner creative genius out!

First, make sure your card has no value left on it. You never know, someone might just be so excited to craft, they might forget & use one that still has money on it! I so could see myself doing that… Then, bend your card into shape. I used a metal ruler to help me with that. You only need a little bit of a lip to hold your phone, so bend that first, then halfway between the little lip & the other end, bend the opposite direction. You should end up with a shape like the ones pictured above.

Next, lightly sand all sides. It helps the mod podge stick better. I actually think sanding FIRST, then bending might work better, but sometimes I tend to do things backwards. If any of you decide to do the sanding first, let me know how it turns out! Another helpful little hint is to do your sanding over a damp paper towel, then use that to wipe the card when you’re finished.

Now, cut two pieces of paper slightly larger than your card. Leave yourself ¼” or so of room on all sides, so you can have some wiggle room when you’re gluing the paper down. It’s a bit easier to mold the paper to the card BEFORE mod podging, so you know which piece goes where.

Use mod podge to glue your papers down. I used matte, but you could use glossy or even sparkly! Once dry (give yourself an hour or so), trim close to the edges with scissors. Then you can sand the edges to remove any excess paper.