How to Make a Wooden Gift Card Holder with a Laser (Step-by-Step)

If you search Etsy, you’ll find all kinds of laser-cut gift card holder files. Some are cute, some are well executed—but none of them were quite what I wanted. I wanted something that would be held on to long after the gift card was used up. Gift cards can be considered fairly generic and kind of a “meh” gift. Putting it in a good looking card holder really elevates the gift. I wasn’t seeing that on Etsy.

I decided to make a gift card holder for some good friends, so I spent a little time designing my own file in LightBurn.

Another thing I noticed: most designs use 3mm plywood. I wanted something better—so I made mine from solid wood instead. It costs a bit more, but the durability and finish are worth it. Thin plywood designs can be fragile, especially around small details.

After a few iterations (and a couple of mistakes), version 4 finally came together.

Design Process And Adjustments

I started by cutting a test version from standard 3mm plywood. The concept worked, but I needed to tweak the dimensions.

Next, I cut one from 3mm maple, which turned out great—until my laptop battery died halfway through engraving my friend’s name. Lesson learned.

That setback gave me the chance to improve the design:

Tightened the card pocket for a better fit
Added a small tab to help hold the card in place
Switched the name layout to horizontal
Rounded the lid alignment tab for smoother operation

I engraved the name after assembly by carefully positioning the holder in the laser. I masked the area, engraved it, then used clear and black paint to make the lettering pop.

After a few iterations (and a couple of mistakes), version 4 finally came together.

Assembly Tips

This isn’t a project you want to rush. Take your time aligning everything during glue-up.

I recommend Gorilla Glue Gel Super Glue—it gives enough working time to position the parts accurately.

Once assembled:

Sand the edges flush (a belt sander helps a lot)
Round over edges for a smoother feel
Fine-tune the card tray fit by hand sanding

Finishing

For finishing, I’ve had great results with:

Butcher block oil (natural look, shown in photos)
Satin clear spray (for a more polished finish)

If you choose a spray finish:

Apply thin coats
Sand lightly between coats
I prefer a satin

Tools & Materials

Laser
I use a 20W Sculpfun 20W Laser Engraver, but anything capable of cutting 3mm solid wood will work.

Design Software
Light Burn is what I used to create the file.

Wood
3mm solid lumber—cherry is my favorite by far. Walnut nice as well.

Glue

I like Gorilla Glue Gel.

Sandpaper
Various grits (up to 320 for final sanding)

Belt Sander (Optional)
A small WEN belt sander makes edge work much faster.

Masking Tape & Paint
Used to enhance engraved text.

Finish
Butcher block oil or satin clear spray

Final Thoughts

This project was genuinely fun to build. The finished piece has a satisfying open-and-close action—it almost feels like a fidget toy.

Honestly, I didn’t want to give it away.

I have always been intrigued by Co2 model airplane engines. Always looking for a new piece for my collection, I picked up a Gasparin GMW 73T twin engine on ebay. It was in great shape and never been run. You don’t see many old Co2 model airplane engines come up on ebay and I am not sure if anyone makes them new any longer. At any given time you may will find one here and there. I am no expert on them and you have to dig a little to find info but what I do know is this little Gasparin Co2 engine is a work of art and I wanted to display it. Below is some basic info on a little stand I built. I am not sure on the prop choice yet but for now I have 7 x 4 prop mounted.

Co2 Model Airplane Engine

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So I spent a little time looking at other model airplane display mounts and got a few ideas. Then I started laying out, sketching, cutting out patterns to see how things would fit and finally had an idea of what I wanted. I drew the parts out in light burn and cut out the basic shapes out of cheap plywood to see how everything would fit and look. The nice thing about cutting out parts with the laser is I could cut a variety of shapes for different pieces like the ID plaque and see how everything looked. Once I was satisfied with the look, I cut out the parts I wanted out of 1/8″ solid cherry. The base is 1/2″ walnut that I had laying around. The grain was nice and tight and took the black paint nicely.

As mentioned, the parts were cut out of 1/8″ solid cherry with my laser. (You can find good quality solid wood on Amazon here) The base was just cut and sanded with my miter saw. I also cut a piece of 1/16″ plywood about 2mm smaller than the shape of the base to set the top off the bottom just a bit. I covered the areas of the ID tag that would be engraved with masking tape. After they cut, I shot the ID parts with a clear coat to seal the tape and then shot it with the white to fill the letters. Not perfect but not bad and make the engraving stand out. I usually like to prefer the natural look of cherry with just a clear coat but I decided on a mahogany stain as a better contrast to the base. The base is satin black. I used double sided tape to hold the fuel tank down.

I was very happy with how the mount for the Gasparin GMW73T Co2 engine turned out. As mentioned earlier, I am not sure on the prop yet. I hope to have a video of the engine running up soon. I am always looking for cool little projects that I combines my love of creating with my other interests like model airplanes. I also love it when I can utilize my laser in the project. Right now I use a simple Sculpfun 20 watt Pro Max laser. Here is a link to another project that I made with the laser that has a little info on the laser, the wood etc. Amazon is a good source for solid cherry for your projects. They also offer the lasers and some other accessories for using them that will help you out.

Here’s a simple little jig I burned on my Sculpfun laser for aligning wing ribs. I made these from standard 3mm plywood. They are approximately 1-1/2″ long by 3/8″ wide. The slot for the ribs is .79mm that seems to work well for 1/32″ balsa ribs. I have used them on 1/16″ balsa but I think I will make some with a bigger slot. The pin holes are 1mm. I made two to keep the ribs from pivoting. These little wing rib jigs work well to keep the ribs at a right angle to the work surface and make it easy to lock the ribs in place when you are gluing. If you are using CA glue, make sure not to get carried away or you will have the jig permanently mounted to your rib! These are super easy to draw in Lightburn and for me the work great! The wing in the video is for a Sterling peanut scale Fokker D-8. All though this isn’t a laser cut kit, it was very relaxing to cut out the pieces. Having the wing rib jigs kept everything nice and true.

Peanut Scale Kits

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William Dean Wright makes a great product for z scale with his Full Throttle line of wonderfully detailed freight cars. If you are into z z scale you know doubt have some of his cars. While his offerings are known to have great detail and interesting subjects, they are also very well know for their plastic cases with wonderful artwork and details. They are also very collectible and many sell out immediately! I know, I was a dealer for him for about 6 years. So here is a little project I made with my Sculpfun laser that you may want to take a look at.

While the hard case and the artwork for the Full Throttle is awesome, I wanted to show off my Blue Coal hopper set a little more. I also have been messing around with my new laser cutter and needed another project to hone my skills. So I laid out a box in my software (Lightburn) and burned a little box. I made the top out of 1/8″ solid cherry and made a bottom for the box out of plywood. I added a couple of engraved lines to serve as track to hold the cars in place. My first one was pretty good but I didn’t like the spacing of the rails so brought them closer together. I also decided just to make the top and slide it over the plastic base. I still have the file for the bottom if I want to go that way.

Z Scale Full Throttle On Ebay

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The box top is quite simple and easy to design. I used 1/8″ solid cherry. For this type of project, solid wood looks so much nicer than plywood. I would recommend having a inexpensive calipers to measure you wood and then adjust the size of your tabs to reduce sanding. My would measured out at 3.4 mm and I set my tabs at 3.5 mm, I will likely bump them up a little more. It’s easier to sand the tabs down than sanding the sides down to meet the tabs. I used a medium CA but you could use wood clue and clamps if you prefer. I used a simple gloss clear coat finish that I sanded in between for a great finish.

My laser is a Sculpfun S30 Pro Max with air assist. I have a Creality hood with a fan to keep the smoke contained and move it out. I have just a cheap calipers for measuring the wood. The solid cherry I bought from Amazon. Walnut, maple, oak and other woods are also available on Amazon. My speed for the cut was 600mm and the power was 85% with 2 passes. For the engrave I went at 6,000mm and 85%, but I later dropped the engrave power to 65% which gave me less of sap burn affect. Keep in mind these were my settings! Run test patterns with your laser for best results.

This little Hot Wheels gift box taught me more basics about laser cutting and engraving. It also helped me learn a little more about Lightburn software. It also taught me that I need to slow down, measure twice and cut once. Something I still hear ringing in my ears form my high school shop teacher. It’s a simple design that fit’s a good share of Hot Wheel cars. I took a picture of it with my battle worn Pit Crew. You could easily make the design a little bigger to fit your needs or even double or triple it.

Vintage Redline Hot Wheels

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As mentioned above, this is a simple box but is just a little cooler for a gift box when you call it a Hot Wheels gift box! The bottom of the box is 1/8″ light ply with finger joints. I also added a 3/4″ hole to make it easy to slide the top off. The top is 1/8″ solid walnut. I prefer solid wood as it just look nicer than a plywood box. I burned in the Hot Wheels logo for my personal use. I wouldn’t include it in a file or for sale. I don’t want Barbie coming after me. The finish is a simple rust o leum clear coat semi gloss. Give it a couple of light coats and then sand with 320 before a final coat. It comes out so nice! I used a lens cleaner cloth to wrap the car in. Outside dimensions of the box are 3-3/4″ x 2″ by about 1-3/8″. Again as mentioned before get a cheap calipers to measure the thickness of the solid wood top, it will make your sanding much easier! If you want to contact me at jrk7841@msn.com, I can try to send you the Lightburn file, less the logo of coarse!

I use a Sculpfun 20 Watt with air assist. For me, the price point and power matched up nicely. I added a Creality cover and cutting platform. Calipers are a must. Amazon has a nice selection of 1/8″ lumber available as well. I like the Lightburn more and more as I use it but I know XTool has their own software that is getting good feedback as well.

Here is a simple little project that I made using my Sculpfun S30 PRO MAX Laser. It’s a simple design that allows me to display an old Atlas N Scale 2-8-2 Mikado Locomotive. It could certainly be used for other locomotives as well. Below I will give an overview of the experience. I am relatively new at laser work and so I hope some of the info will help you along the way. The project helped me learn a few tricks with the laser in both layout and settings.

The box itself is of a fairly straight forward design laid out using Lightburn. If you have a laser engraver, you probably own Lighturn or equivalent software. The box top is solid cherry, not plywood. Solid wood may be a little more inconsistent in thickness and a little more money but the look is so much nicer. The bottom is just a standard cheap hobby plywood. Both where bought as 3mm but actual thickness varied. More on that a little later, it does make a difference in layout. The goal was basically to recreate a plastic jewelers case that Atlas used for many years for their n scale locomotives in wood. My goal was to utilize the plastic tray inside the jewelers case inside my wooden case. So with careful measuring and adjusting, I was able to get the bottom sized correctly. From there I created the top to slide over the wood bottom. If you have a plastic case bottom, I imagine you could just use that for the bottom. If you don’t have plastic tray insert, you could just wrap the locomotive in soft cloth for storage. I added a couple of engraved grooves in the top to serve as rails to display the locomotive.

N Scale Locomotive Storage And Display Box

I had been using walnut on a few projects but on this one I decided to use cherry. I am really pleased how the wood finished out. With the clear coat, it really has a classic look. The cover is 1/8″ or 3 mm cherry from Amazon. The wood actually measured out at 3.4 mm (but a cheap caliper!) so I made my tabs at 3.mm which proved just about perfect. I may increase to 3.6 mm as I would rather have the tabs a little tall and then sand down. The bottom of the box was just made from standard project ply at 3 mm. It measured out a little shy of that, I made the tabs at 3.01 mm. The light ply sands very easy so not a big deal if the tabs are a little tall. I glued the box up using a medium CA glue and then sanded all the tabs flush. The finish is a simple rust-o-leum semi gloss. I sprayed a couple of light coats and then sanded with 320 sandpaper and gave it one last coat. The finish is super nice.

I am no way an expert on laser cutting and engraving. But if you google what you want to know in regards to laser choice, how to use the software and designing projects, there is no end to the info. I will add a list of essentials if you are new to laser cutting and engraving below for you to review. My laser is a Sculpfun S30 Pro Max, 20 WATT. I am very happy with it thus far. Would I go bigger? Yes, I could always use more power. For a project like this, I would think a 10 WATT or even a 5 WATT could work, It’s just a little slower. I think to cut the top of this project was about 13 minutes, the box bottom probably 3 minutes or so. I don’t think I would go below a 10 WATT. My software is Lightburn. The license is good for three machines. Again there is so much help on line for this software, you will find the help you need. One thing that tripped me up a couple of times is when switch back and forth between inches and MM. It can do some strange things to your layout! Watch it. Also, when laying out your finger joints, you should really have a inexpensive micrometer to measure the material as it does affect how you size you tabs. You have much less sanding! There are ways to reduce your cutting and engraving time, again, spend some time on youtube. I shaved a bunch of time off on the engraved rails just by flipping the top 90 degrees in the software.

Laser, 10 WATT or better
Lightburn software or other
Air assist for cutting
Laser goggles
Enclosure for laser with ventilation
Honeycomb laser cutting board
Inexpensive micrometer
Stable work surface
Plastic push pin clamps and magnets to hold material.

My laser is the Sculpfun S30 PRO MAX 20 WATT with air assist. I added a Creality laser cover with an exhaust fan that I mounted to a base so it opens like a convertible. I have a 400MM x 400MM honeycomb cutting board that I mounted to the work base as well. This assists me with jig alignment. I use Lighburn software on my laptop computer. I have the software on my PC as well so often times I will create the file and then transfer with a thumb drive to my laptop. I use the standard glasses that came with the laser, but the cover also has protective viewing windows. I use plastic push clamps and heavy magnets to hold material in place. I also have a inexpensive calipers that I measure wood thickness when making box tabs.