A bunch of ya’ll that have met me have asked me about my card-holder. Well, here it is. I grabbed a few of those free paint chips ya find at paint stores (home depot), made a few bends here and there, and bahm, you have your very own colorful hand-made paint chip card holder. I made a DIY guide after the jump, though the template’s custom to my cards size (3.5″x1.9/16″). The the home depot chips I used can just barely fit a basic 3.5″x2.5″ card with some changes in the template. Lots of pics after the jump along with the DIY instructions.
To start off, go grab some paint chips(home depot, or any hardware paint store). Pick your favorite color or name. I went by the name, and went with the chip “Green Shimmer”, “Spirit Whisper”, and “Key Lime”!
Here’s a template I made. I changed it up a bit, but you can download the updated version below. The Grey section is what you cut off. The white you keep, and the red lines are where you scribe and bend the card.
Note: Put clear packaging tape over the printed template to avoid ink transfer to your paint chips face.
This is the updated template for my custom card size.(click it and download it) To change the size of the template, make “A” the height of your card, and “B” the thickness that you want the card holder to be. The current design allows about 16-25 cards. You can shift the outlines around based on how you want to graphics from the chips to show up.
Update: Here’s an updated template for a regular 3.5″ x 2″ biz card. In this template, you will have to glue or double tape the final side internal flap noted as “tape or glue”. Enjoy!
Take the template, and flip your paint chip upside down onto it. This allows you to make the scribe marks on the backside of the paint chip.
Once ya got it down, tape down 3-4 sides.
The tools you’ll need are simple: A ruler(straight edge), exacto knife, and scribe, or a rounded point(something that will crease the paper, but not cut).
Scribe all the red lines.
Be sure to avoid scribing over the entire back. It’s not bad if you do, but it just makes a much cleaner back surface.
Cut away the Grey areas. The really small offsets are to give room for the paper to fold into each other, and also for a nice slot for the flap.
Bahm! Everything is cut out, bent, and ready for some folding.
Fold everything inwards, 90 degrees. Do not bend tooooo much in case some paint wants to flake off.
Put a long piece of tape on the bottom part where I labled it “tape”. This is placed to give your cards a nice slide into your holder.
Take that long piece of tape, and lay it down all the way through the top flap. If you can cover a majority of the length, it’s good, as long as it makes it up to the “top flap”. Otherwise, use extra tape, and cut off the excess afterwards.
After you get the tape down, the rest of the folding should be pretty easy to figure out. The side flap is the 2nd to last step. The last step should be folding in the “Inside Flap”. Once this piece is folded in, the whole thing should be locked all together without any tape.
Pop your cards in, and make sure it fits! The inside flap acts as a spring in a way, to keep your cards snug even when theres only a few cards left inside.
Now you might notice this buldge on the side. If you want, stick a piece of double sided tape inside before you fold everything together. Otherwise, it holds together nicely without any tape. You can also use glue or something. If you are using the same paint chips I used(5″x6″) and plan to make a card holder for a 3.5″x2.5″, then you will need to use tape since there is very little extra once you expand the template to fit the larger version.
Bahm! Here is what you get as a final product after sticking in some tape!
I made a bunch of them. On the right side is an example of the 3.5″ x 2.5″ card holder.
A different color for every occasion.
These might also work great for the wonderful Flickr Moo MiniCards I posted about before!
this is just the project i’ve been waiting for–i just finished painting our house but have a guilty 6-inch stack of paint chip cards made from rejected colors.
Pingback: BeanGraphics.com
That’s pretty nifty. I don’t know the exact dimensions of an iPod nano, but it seems if you added some foam padding in there it could be a cool little nano case as well.
Pingback: Six Guns Blazing » Awesome Recycled Business Card Holders
I’m sorry this just looks a little unclear w/r/t what size paint chip we should use for a ‘standard’ business card. Great project though!
Wonder if I can feed these into a inkjet printer and do some more customization on them. Has anyone tried that?
NJTrout
I am very excited about this, thanks a lot.
Now all I have to do is figure out what I am going to use them for, hmm.
These are too cute. I want to make some little ones for my moo cards.
Time to go raid Home Depot!
that is cool! 🙂
i think i need to make me one of them.
nice recycling idea.
hey all!
– For the regular biz cards, expand “A” in my template to 2.5″ and lower the red lines some. I didnt have time to make a template for it. Maybe I’ll make one if enough ppl ask for one.. 😉
– The ipod idea is awesome!!! if only i had a nano 😉
cheers,
_tango!
VERY nice. Love it! Gonna make a bizillion of them and sell them on my website. Just kidding. Just gonna make one for me-self.
This is great for designers who need to get paint chips all the time, good way to store them and know what colors are inside. (just cut up the same color card into individual colors). Good job.
Came here via Lifehacker, what a great idea, thanks for sharing.
Reminds me of the Moo Skype cards packaging on the postcard, another great idea, but yours gives them portability!
Will be sharing with my craft loving wife.
hello all.
Rock on!, make some of thes paint chip holders, and send me your pics! If you happen to make an ipoid version, be great to get as well!!! Maybe I’ll buy one now that I have another inventive to.
Spread the love!
_t
Pingback: sketch » Blog Archive » Business Card Holder
Thanks to the LifeHacker link, now I have something to do with all 50 of the paint chips I got last time we did our renovation. Nicely done!
can you post a template for a 3.5×2 business card?
🙂 yes!
thank you, I shall use this walkthrough for my cards, which are somewhere in the mail right now!!
**excitement**
Looks great for Moo (www.moo.com) Cards,
For those who don’t know Moo MiniCards are wicked looking 28mm x 70mm Cards you can print from your Flickr photos.
Pingback: Jeremoi » Blog Archive » links for 2006-11-15
i’ll post up a 3.5×2.5 template later this week once i find time to do it.
Otherwise, send me picks of your moocards or ipods in these holders!
_t
Nice idea. It reminds me of my card holders from when i was in elementry school and didn’t want my b-ball cards bent or marked by rubber bands.
Pingback: Feed 5000 » Blog Archive » Design DIY: The Origami Edition
Pingback: links for 2006-11-15 « the adventures of a baby codemonkey
Pingback: Daily Clerks
Pingback: garethtownsend.info » Blog Archive » The Monday Mashup - Links for the week ending the 19th of November 2006
Pingback: jeffcaylor.com » links for 2006-11-15
Pingback: 4
this is amazingly fun!
what a grand idea!
kudos to you!
I am looking to make these card holders for gifts. I am not able to figure out how to reduce the template to fit a standard business card. Currently when I print it fills a 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Thanks much tango! I was able to resize the template. Now we’ll see how well the other steps go.
Sloop, no problem..send me pics of your results!!!
_t
Will do Tango.
After messing around with this for a couple of hours I was able to figure out how to position the paint chip so you could read the paint names. Trial and error. I also found that I needed to cutout the piece in between the cutlines above the top flap area. Additionally I rounded the opening flap to match the other side. There seems to be more ways than one to construct these boxes.
yup, there are all kinds of variations to mingle with….lines go sideways, upwards, text appear, or are hidden, flaps inside act as a spring, etc… Lots of fun for such a simple project. I still have yet to come up with the the design that will launch one card out at a time!(bond style)
Pingback: troy worman’s blog » Blog Archive » Build Your Own Card Holders
thanks, that looks like fun! May have to go steal some paint chips though… (came here via whipup.net)
kelly,
heya… thanks for the link to whipup…i’ll check it out…have fun with the paint cards..let me know if ya need help.
_t
Pingback: Polymer Clay Notes » color coder
Pingback: Great Green Goods » Blog Archive » Make Your Own Business Card Holder
Pingback: iDiy.mobi » designverb - Paintchip card holder tutorial
You are SO cool!
Sweet 🙂
Pingback: Astuteo
Pingback: GoGoAbigail.com » » Found: Paint Cards [updated, again]
Pingback: Indie Shopper » Mind’s Eye
Pingback: Creatrix Blog » Blog Archive » Paint-chip business card holder
Pingback: iDiy.mobi » designverb
Good design
Pingback: infobong.com » linkdump for 2007.02.21