Countdown to Christmas! Day 5: Sending Money? Quick Card!

Aloha, all!

     As my children and niece and nephews have grown up, I've been sending fewer and fewer gifts and more and more checks and cash for special occasions – like Christmas, of course!  And now I have grandchildren, all of whom live far away, and whose interests change quite a bit more often than I see them.  So money works for them now, too!

     But as I slip a check or some money inside one of my handmade cards, it seems as if I should be more creative than just folding a piece of paper up and putting it in a card.   I looked around and found some money holder cards that people have made.  But all of them either require folding the money anyway or are too large to fit in one of Stampin' Up!'s envelopes.  So I finally decided last week to make my own special money card.  It was a bit on the tricky side, but it's worked wonderfully. 

     The tricky part is one that I solved, so you won't have to struggle with it.  To keep this card short enough lengthwise to fit in a Stampin' Up! envelope, I had to use just a sliver of adhesive on either side of the slit where the bill/check fits in.  For the card shown, I cut a piece of Sticky Strip in half lengthwise. 

     The important thing is that this card, including its "belly band" closer, fits just perfectly inside one of Stampin' Up!'s Small Open End envelopes.  And that envelope meets the length and width requirements for mailing in the United States.  Important if you live in the U. S.!

     Of course I've written a one-page tutorial for this gem of a gift card and it's on my blog as of today!   I quickly whipped out a half dozen of these for a craft fair I did today, and they looked lovely on the display table.  The ones I have left will look even more lovely when someone in my family opens them on Christmas Day!

     I hope you enjoy making these as much as I do.  Whatever you end up doing this weekend, I hope you have a lot of fun with it!