Christmas gift card and cash presentations

I don't like to stick cash or check inside a card without some sort of holder.

One of my sons called one evening to ask what I was doing. I told him I was drafting a box. After he made sure he heard correctly, he didn't question what I had said because this didn't surprise him. I like challenges.
Sometimes.
If you are giving someone a single piece of currency (or 2-3) or a single check, you don't need much wiggle room in designing a presentation container. In this case, I had some cash and a multiple page letter to enclose.

I measured the length and height of the largest piece. To simply matters here, let's say it was just under 6" long and 2" high, meaning a sheet of paper 6"x2" would cover the image with a bit of ease on all sides. Again to make this easy, let's say the depth of the stack of items was just und 1/2". One-half inch of paper would cover the depth of the stacked items with a little wiggle room.

Here is the box that I drafted. There is a front and back panel to the cash holder plus a flap (cover) that will come over the front. The depth of the box is 1/2", therefore 1/2" is added to each side of the 6" we measured above and also 1/2" between the front, back and cover. The overall dimensions of the paper used for this are 7" x 7". It was scored on one side at 1/2" and 6.5". In the other direction, it was scored at 2", 2.5", 4.5", and 5". 

The cover doesn't need sides so I cut those off represented by the xxxx. The bottom of the box, the next 1/2" section should show a second set of red cut lines. This will allow you to form neat corners when gluing the sides of your box together. I used double sided tape to make mine. The cover does not have to be 2" tall if you don't want the flap to come all the way down to the bottom of the closed box.

I made a belly band to keep the box closed. The die cut images on the belly band (measure around the closed box and allow a slight overlap for gluing together) are from Simon Says Stamp's Picture Book series of dies. I'm sorry the picture is of better quality. It was the only one I took before delivering these gifts. I used a corner rounder on the flap which is barely visible on the right hand side.

My nieces' children got these self-closing boxes with cash and candy in them. There are many versions of directions for these boxes described online. I used these directions from Dawn Griffith. I only covered the larger triangle with designer paper. The gingerbread men are from a Stampin' Up punch called Cookie Cutter Builder #140396.

Making these boxes was rather addictive. I made them in other sizes and will definitely make them again for other occasions. There is something fascinating about them closing so well without anything needed to seal them or hold them together.

Next is the last thing I plan to show that relates to Christmas of 2017 and it is a strange card for Christmas and therefore requires an explanation.

One son was giving a gift card to someone who had been a very good friend this past year. Could I make a card for him? Sure! I asked if the recipient had any special interests, such as, did one item, animal or place always make people think of this woman? He laughed when he realized the first thing people thought of with her in mind is the poop emoji. She is a lovely woman and not someone you associate with a pile of poop, but the image makes her laugh.

With that in mind, I created a top fold pile of poop card, then fitted a Santa hat to go over it. After doing that, I realized that the card wasn't wide enough to conceal the gift card. I wanted the poop card to fit easily inside an A2 envelope. What goes better with a pile of poop than a roll of toilet paper? Voila, the gift card holder was created to accompany the poop card.