Card Set to Hide Things In

When I was about to throw away my cards (lost a few cards, and it needed replacement anyway), I thought of making this: a pack of cards with a hole in it to hide things in. It can be anything (as long as it's small). How about some spare money? Maybe a few batteries, or a mini knife. I use it to keep some spare money with me.
I used pieces of leather from an old wallet to line the inside with. It looks very neat, if I say so myself.

Note: don't underestimate the amount of time this will take. Took me about 2 hours. You have to cut and glue every single piece separately.

Second note: remember to be careful with knives!

Step 1: Materials You Need.

-A pack of cards, obviously
-A ruler
-A sharp knife. I recomend an xacto knife, but I used a small spyderco knife because that one is actually sharper than a xacto :)
-Scissors
-A few pieces of leather, or felt. You can probably use a lot of different materials for this. Or you can skip lining it at all, since that saves some work.

-A cutting board might be a good idea, since you will be cutting with a sharp knife. Don't want scratches on your table, even if it is a workbench!

What I forgot to include in this photo is glue. Very important :D
Any kind of glue is okay, I guess.

Step 2: Cutting the Cards

You want to keep 17 cards for later. Just lay them somewhere else and forget about them (for now, just try to remember where you put them though).

Proceed to cut out the centers of all the other cards. You can see how I did that in the pictures. I didn't have to draw or anything, since the picture on the back is a great guideline on where to cut. Instructables can't show gif pictures so you can take a look at this:
i156.photobucket.com/albums/t26/eygen/6.gif

If your cards don't have this pattern (which I kind of expect), you have to draw the cut out pattern, or it will look very sloppy if you do it by hand.

Repeat until you don't have any cards left (except for the 17 cards you just put aside).

Step 3: Glue the First Part Together

Should be obvious. Glue the cutouts together. Don't use too much glue, or it might get soggy.

Enjoy lunch while it dries :)

Step 4: The Bottom

To make the bottom you can glue two (of the 17 you have left) cards together. On that, glue a piece of leather, or any material you have decided to use. If you don't want to do that, that's okay.
For anyone that does, the leather piece will need to be bigger than the parts you cut out. Because of that, there will be a space left by the leather. You need to cut 4 cards like in the picture, and glue them around the leather. You now have 11 cards left.

Step 5: Putting the Leather on the Middle Part.

You need 4 pieces of leather (or like I said, any other material), to line up the inside. You can see how I did that in the picture. I used glue for this too, and it works great.

Step 6: Time to Fill the Gaps

Because you've added another layer, just like with the bottom part, you need to add cut outs to fill the gap left by the leather.

When you've cut out 8 of them, you can start assembling. You now have 3 cards left.

Step 7: Finishing Up.

You have 3 cards left. Like you saw in the picture, cut out one of them, and glue it on top of the entire thing. You're done!

Now you have two cards left to cover it up with. I haven't figured out a good way to cover it yet. Suggestions are welcome! I was thinking you could use a pin to make a small pivot for the two cards on top, but that will come apart too easy.


As you can see, it's almost identical to a normal pack of cards. It still fits in the same pack and it weighs less, even with a battery!
I think this is a good way to always have spare money with you. Use bills though, no coins, since they make noise.

Step 8: Suggestions

Edit: sweet! I got featured!
Edit: Sweet! It's in the popular list!

Any suggestions, comments or questions? Don't be afraid to comment. Go on. You know you want to.


Don't forget to rate too :)

Comments

[roundthingsroll]

Hi. I made one, and I love it. I used orange felt for the liner, and put in two rare-earth magnets, one at each end of the body, then broke an exacto blade and sandwiched those metal bits into the lid, now the magnets keep the lid closed.

Thanks for the excellent Instructable and idea.

:)

[eygen]

That looks neat! I'm doing the same thing with a book now, but it's taking ages.

Have fun hiding stuff :)

[shadow wave rider]

great idea with the magnets. but the holes for the magnet where made by a hole punch werent they. or did you drill it. tell me

[WouldWorkShop]

I cut out a sheet metal stencil to trace the cut onto each card, to ensure all the holes were the same size. Fits a buck knife, LED flashlight, and some matches (I glued a strike pad to the inside). Thanks for the idea!

[badblb]

i had two cards i cut the center out of one of them then stapled a card on top on only the small top side with two staples so you can fold it up

[d.i.y master]

here are those pics you asked for

[d.i.y master]

Wow its creepy but when I made one it took me exactly 2 hours like you said!.

[eygen]

Cool! Could you post some pics of the results?

[ralphab]

 To speed up the gluing process, try  power gun nailing the four corners of the deck together then gluing top and bottom to cover the nails. Also to cut multiple card layers drill a pilot hole and use a jigsaw to trim the inside (after power nailing). I've successfully jigsawed layers of paper before. Maybe a rubber band in two directions would hold everything together (like we did in college for a ready game.)

[Rick.Cartwright6]

Nice Spyderco!

[vanillabean]

For attaching the bottom cards:
How about a pin/pivot mechanism. I know you said that but hear me out:
- Cut a hole for the pin to sit comfortably in the deck with enough space on top to allow the cover to rotate.
- Super glue the hole. Stick in the pin (through the cards of course).

The pin would be secure, though the cards may still be fragile, depending on how you treat them.

For even more security: Add a magnet in between the two cover cards opposite the pin. Then add a magnet (more cutting!) so the top is one card down from the top of the box. Voila?

[McCoolman]

 try magnets 

[SmokeDestructer]

Well, you could try using half or 2/3 of the deck to make a bottom part, put around a small box without a top, then glue the rest of the deck together with the top couple of cars not cut, making a lid that would go around the interior box. I'm not sure if I did a good job explaining that, but there's my suggestion.

[Human Being]

awesome!! for the title, how about something like, "How to Hide Something in a Deck of cards"

[SNiPERSeyes]

thats the greatest name i have ever seen, human being, oh god if i have children im gonna name my son human being....

[Johenix]

Better idea: Casinos here in the states give away drilled decks of cards. (Drilled so you can't use them to cheat the casino.) Seeing you can drill a deck:
1.) Take your 35 cards (52-17) and drill a hole in the center of the deck.
2.)Glue the cards front to back.
3.)Put a bolt through the hole to compress the deck and let the glue dry.
4.)Now with the bolt and glue holding the deck solid, drill four corner holes and then with a coping saw cut out the center of the deck.

[NatureBoom21]

:O where did ya get that knife! i want one!

[bustedit]

@Nature - I think that is a Kershaw brand knife. they make great lil knives.

[eygen]

Like I said, it's a Spyderco. I do have several Kershaws I like, though, so it might as well have been one.

[fidgetingfinch]

 You could probably fit a Kershaw LFK in there too. It's an awesome knife for the price. I seriously have $100 knives that aren't as sharp as that $30 Kershaw.