Adorable Leather Card Holder

Need a special gift? A gift card tucked away in one of these adorable leather card holders makes a great gift! They are also super cute ways to gift someone something special like a key or jewelry. These card holders can be personalized with an engraving, such as a design, monogram or a cute pattern, and they can be made in any color you choose. They are also great to stick in a pocket to hold an ID and a credit card when you want to pack light.

Need leather supplies? Check out some ideas in my list of favorite things.

REMINDER: TEST, MASK (if needed) & DON’T FORGET TO VENT & SET FOCUS HEIGHT

Let’s Make A Leather Card Holder!

First, download the Leather Card Holder design from my design library.

This design is made for veg-tanned leather approximately 3/64″ thick. It should be masked.
Place your material into the Glowforge. Secure the material to the bed of the machine, using honeycomb pins.
Leather often has natural variations. Your settings may need to be adjusted to your specific piece of material. Make a small test cut using a simple shape such as a tiny star in a corner of the material. Ensure that your cut settings are cutting all the way through the leather but not burning it too much. If you are planning to personalize your design, make a test engrave or score shape to find the settings that will work best on your specific piece of material.
Lasering with leather is very smelly. However, typically the smell goes away after a while. If you find that the leather smell bothers you, after the print is complete, set the card holder aside somewhere in a dry place where it can air out for a few days.
Upload the card holder design to the Glowforge dashboard. Move the design to the location where you want to cut the leather. If you want to personalize the card holder with an engraving or scored design, choose that design, also, upload it and arrange it where desired.
Set your material to the appropriate settings.

Materials and Supplies Needed:

medium thickness veg-tanned leather, approximately 3/64″, approximately 10″ x 7″ or larger
leather snaps

Tools:

leather snap tools
calipers to check the exact height of your material (or use “auto” setting)

In the left bar, set the cut step to the cut settings that worked best in step 4 above.
Set any personalized additional designs as needed (to score or engrave).
Print.

Remove the leather from the machine, the remove the masking from the card holder.

6. At this point, if you would like, you may use leather dye and top finish coat to leather. This will be covered in another tutorial later.

7. Along all of the lines where the leather will fold, if needed, bend the leather to make it more flexible.

8. Gather leather tools and one set of snaps, as seen here:

fold sides and line up holes to prepare to add snap for leather card holder

9. Fold sides of pouch in and then fold bottom section up. Line up holes.

10. Attach male side snap on bottom holes.

Attach male side snap to leather card holder

11. Attach the female side of snap on the top edge of pouch. Place the female socket on the finished side of the leather, with the stud sticking through the leather. Attach the female cap on top of the female socket.