3D Printed - Mother's Day Gift Card Holder

Mother' day is fast approaching, and if your lazy like me and into giving gift cards instead of making something crafty. 3D print one of these gift card holder which you leave on the table with the Gift card for Mom or put it on the breakfast tray your planing to cook.

The gift card holder then doubles up as a photograph or a card holder as shown in the picture above.

In addition if you would like to design something your self and make it a little more personal, I have attached the 123dx card holder file in step 4, which you can download and follow along to add your own message.

Don't have a 3D printer use the Print via 3D Hubs button to get the STL files printed from some one in/around your city/town.

Step 1: 3D Print the Base

Download the 3D printing software that you printer supports, in my case i am using the Printrbot Simple Metal which use Repetier-Host as a software to

Slice the STL files attached, which basically means cutting the part into various layers
And send commands to the 3D printer while printing

Download the STL file attached and load it in your printer software and slice the file, based on your printer setting

Slicing the STL file should take about 8-9 Seconds
And the print time should be about 14- 16 mins

In my case with the Printrbot Simple Metal I am using Hatchbox black 1.75mm PLA filament

BaseCardHolder.stl
Download View in 3D

Step 2: 3D Print Gift Card/Holder

To go with the base select a design that your would prefer, if you are not designing your own following the steps 4 to 8.

Download the respective STL file , add it to your 3D printing software and slice and print the file.

In my case I am using Makerbot true Red 1.75mm PLA filament.

Slicing each file should take a few seconds and depending on the design you select, and base on your printer setting printing each file should take about 7-10mins.

Step 3: Add the Base to Gift Card Holder

Snap the 3D printed parts into each other as shown in the picture above.

Add the Gift card to the holder.

Once Mother day is over this holder double up as a Photograph/ card holder.

Step 4: Designing Your Own Message

To design you own personal message

- Download 123D design from the link below, and install it on your computer

http://www.123dapp.com/design

- And then download the 123dx file attached and open the file in 123D design, by going to Menu -> Open, browser you drive and open the CardHolder.123dx file.

CardHolder.123dx
Download

Step 5: Use the Text Tool

once you have opened the CardHolder.123dx file in 123D app you should see a rectangular type shape with hinges at the end.

Now use the Text tool from the top menu as shown in the screen shot above to type in your own text

Click on the grid and type in your text (in my case #1 MOM)
Select Arial Black as the font , feel free to experiment and try various fonts. I tried quite a few and found Arial Black to be the best for 3D printing.
You can also experiment with the Height,but we will get to that in the last step.

Step 6: Extrude to 1 Mm

Now the slot in the base that you printed as part of step one is about 3 mm, so the rectangular block you see below in 1 mm.

Select the Extrude option from the construct menu as shown in the first screen shot above

Then click on the text to select it

And then type in the 1, which will extrude the text by 1mm.

Once done hit enter.

Step 7: Move and Scale

Scroll using your mouse wheel to zoom into the 123D.

Now pull text onto the rectangular box as shown in the picture below one by one.

At this point you will observer that your letter need to be slightly bigger , to achieve this we will use Scale as shown in the second screen shot above.

Select each letter using the shift key
in the Scale menu drop down select Non Uniform
then use the arrow to change the Y and X values.(do not change the value of the Z as this will change the extrusion value)
Once done you will have to move the letters again to overlap with the rectangular box