Introduction: 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.