Business Card Display Stand Made of Office Supplies

You know the feeling: you start a brand new job and want to get your name out there. You order a few cheap business cards on the internet to make yourself feel important but when you get the office you realize you have nowhere to display them! Have no fear, this instructable is here!

Note: I totally stole this idea from Frank Coppola's instructable: https://www.instructables.com/id/Business-Card-Holder-Tray/. I just wanted to give more detailed instructions based on his original idea, so all credit to him.

Step 1: Supplies

You will need some basic office supplies. If you don't already have these, ask a coworker.

1. Cardstock. I tried initially to use paper, but it doesn't hold up the weight of the cards for very long. I couldn't find any index cards so definitely do not do what I may or may not have done, which is use the cover of one of the training booklets they gave me on the first day.

2. Something to mark the cardstock with. Pen, pencil, sharpie, etc.

3. Scissors.

4. Stapler or tape. Staples work better, but tape is fine too.

5. Ruler. Or a really good eye.

Step 2: Cutting Out the Template

First you need to cut out a rectangular template for the stand before you fold it.

My business cards are the standard size, 3.5" x 2", so my template was 5.5" by 2".

If you got fancy and bought really nice cards that are some other dimension, make the short edge of the template the same length as the short edge of your business card. Then add the length of the short edge of your card to the length of the long edge of your card and use that number for the long edge of your template.

Step 3: Marking Where You Will Fold

Now you need to mark the lines on your template where you will fold it into a beautiful business card stand.

If you made the template with the same dimensions as I did, mark a line 1" from each end of the long side of the template and then one line cutting the template in half, hotdog style. If I explained this right and you did it right you should have a template with two boxes on either side and a big rectangle in the middle.

If you made a non-standard size template, follow along with the variable dimensions in the picture.

Step 4: Fold

If you ever did origami as a kid, this shouldn't be too difficult.

First, fold along the long center line and flatten the template back out.

Next, fold along the two side lines and flatten the template back out.

Here comes the tricky part: Pinch one of the squares on each side so you fold it diagonally on the square. This will form the triangles holding up the stand.

Step 5: Staple

Staple as close as you can diagonal where the cards will rest against on the triangles that hold up the stand so that the stand will stay up by itself.

As a final touch, fold the excess material sticking up on either side of the stand down (again, like origami if you're into that) so that it doesn't stab people. You don't want anything to dissuade someone from taking one of your business cards!