Minimalist's Magic Wallet

A modification of the magic wallet to hold credit cards. Trimmed to the bare minimum -- thickness of one card plus rubber bands,

Credit and ID cards cannot be 'flipped' in magic wallet designs. This design offers an elastic exterior to hold those stiff cards.

You will need
- superglue
- 1 stiff plastic card (hotel card works well)
- 1 spare card for measuring (not used in final product)
- 2 matching rubber bands
- (optional) decorating paper/vinyl/wallpaper, or for the ultimate minimalists, combined club barcodes

- a pair of scissors
- a marker
- 10 minutes

Step 1: Materials

Start with
- main card: 1 stiff plastic card (hotel cards are stiff and do not have embossed words)
- spare card as a place holder (same size as the main card, a regular credit card should do)
- 2 rubber bands, approximate length needed to wrap loosely around the length of the plastic.

Cut the rubber bands. The length of the cut rubber bands should span the *width* of 3 cards, with a little spare for gluing.

Step 2: Mark places to superglue

With a marker, put 4 spots on the card:
- inner edge: 2 in the centre on one (long) edge
- outer edge: 2 on the ends on the other edge. Estimate the end spots with the height of your smallest currency. The rubber band needs to be able to hold the edges of your cash.

Step 3: Superglue inner edge

Put a *tiny* drop of superglue (1mm in diameter) on the 2 dots on the inner edge. Hold rubber bands down on the superglue for at least 1 minute.

Watch out: superglue might overflow, so work on a protected surface. I made a mess! But the nice thing is that this side will be covered up.

Step 4: Fold rubber bands

Straighten and flatten the rubber bands. Place the spare card over the rubber bands. Fold the rubber bands over the spare card and loop them beneath the main card. No gluing yet, but due to a twist in the rubber band, you may want to mark the sides of the rubber bands facing up,

Step 5: Superglue outer edge

Fold the tips of the rubber bands over onto main cards and glue them down. Again, hold the rubber bands down for at least 1 minutes. You may want to remove the spare card to make it easier to manoeuvre the rubber bands.

Watch out: superglue may overflow. Take care not to glue the rubber bands to the underside of the card.
Watch out: if you remove the spare card, remember/mark the side of the rubber band you need to glue down.

Cover the glued side of the card with decorative paper if you have. If you don't have fancy handmade paper, print your combined discount/club barcodes on card stock to save you even more wallet space.

This single card with 2 rubber bands is essentially the wallet.

Step 6: Assemble wallet

Your wallet is ready for use. Slide multiple credit cards into the rubber band loops. One card will *always* have to remain in the wallet to hold the wallet together. Fold cards over such that the cover shows on the outside (of course!).

You should end up with the main card side, and the loose side holding a stack of credit/ID cards.

Step 7: Magic wallet

Open wallet on one side. Place cash. Close wallet. Open on the 'other' hinged side to discover that cash is now held together by rubber bands. See examples on YouTube for how a magic wallet works.

Comments

[GrKe]

Thank you so much for sharing this! :D
I've been looking for a nice thin wallet, and this is as thin as it gets!

Now if only I had money and credit cards to put in it... XD

[redsoxdrummer]

cool! a thin flip wallet! 2 things tho....
1. i don get th last step, do you glue the other sid on, and why dus there have to be an extra card in ther for it to stay together?
2. think it wud work with those cardbord baseball cards?

[mercurous]

1. No, the other card is loose, but maintains the twist in the rubber band It *may* be glued on, but you won't be able to then use it as a regular credit card.  This was designed for people who have a couple of cards/IDs, and so any one of those cards would act as the 'other' card to stabilise rubber band loops.
2. I don't know the rigidity of baseball cards.  There is a significant amount of stretching from the rubber bands, so pick something which will withstand bending.

[ronmaggi]

I do believe that this will be my next wallet!!!

[Gh{O}sT]

well that was confusing....

[maid63]

i tried this on my friend and he laughed so hard the milk he was drinking came out of his nose

[mercurous]

Don't get it. Was there a problem?

[maid63]

when you laugh, it opens up a flap connecting the mouth to the nose, so the milk went up the hole and out his nose

[muffinhead]

lol, i think he meant was there a problem with the wallet. :D

[maid63]

rofl

[aqwiz]

there is a be nice policy you know :p

[maid63]

rofl means roll on floor laughing not some other word you suspected

[aqwiz]

Uhhm, nope, wasn't talking about the Rofl, I was talking about your ridiculing this poster, as in with your first comment. I know what Rofl means as well as Roflmao Lmaonade, Roflsauce, Roflcopters, Roflmbbq, and several other such terms, I'm just saying that by saying "you tried this" (instructable?) "on a friend and milk came out his nose" that you are being offensive and ridiculing the poster. it was meant somewhat tongue in cheek originally but . ..

[maid63]

... ...sorry-... ... I guess i won't do it again?