How to Design a Gift Card Carrier

Which gift card carrier format should I design for?

For cards sold over the counter, the landscape wallet; for cards sold from a hook, the euro slot carrier. Decide before you design anything, because each of our four formats has its own size, faces to print and way of holding the card.

All four are printed in full colour on 350gsm silk board and hold a standard 86 x 54mm gift card. The wallet takes a handwritten message and folds to 75 x 105mm, so it fits a standard envelope, while both A6 carriers need a C6 envelope if you post them. The standard display carrier suits a card handed over at the till, and the card sleeve is the quickest to use: card in, done. Our gift card display ideas match each format to a display.

Count what you need to say, too. A display carrier gives you two faces and a wallet four, so if you want terms, a valid-until date, instructions and space to write a name, the wallet keeps the type big enough to read.

Where can I get a gift card carrier template?

From our artwork guides page, which has a Photoshop template for the standard display carrier, the euro slot display carrier, and the outside and inside of the landscape wallet. For a card sleeve, ask us and we’ll send you its template.

Each template is set up at the finished size plus 3mm of bleed, at 600dpi, with crop marks at the corners. This is what each one shows:

• Standard display carrier: 105mm wide and 148mm tall, upright, with only the crop marks, because nothing is cut or folded.
• Euro slot display carrier: the same, plus the euro slot, about 32mm wide, centred, from about 8mm to 16mm below the top edge. The slits that hold the card aren’t on it, so ask us where they’ll go.
• Landscape wallet: two files, outside and inside, each 210 x 75mm flat, with the crease down the middle and two short diagonal slits. On the inside file the slits are in the right-hand half, where the card goes. On the outside file they’re in the left-hand half, which is the back once the wallet is folded.
• Card sleeve: sent on request. It shows the crease lines and the thumb notch.

The templates are Photoshop files: if you can’t open them, email sales@cpcards.co.uk and ask. In Canva, set up a standard display carrier as a custom size of 105 x 148mm with print bleed on, and put the front on page 1 and the back on page 2. The other three formats have a slot, slits or folds in fixed places, so work from the template. Our Canva gift card guide has the steps.

How much bleed and safe area does a gift card carrier need?

3mm of bleed all round, and a safe area 3mm inside the trim, the same as on a gift card. On top of that, keep anything important off every crease, slit and slot, and out from under the card.

1. The bleed, the pale band: 3mm all round. Run backgrounds and pictures out to its edge, so no white edge shows after cutting.
2. The trim line, where the carrier is cut, at 105 x 148mm.
3. The safe area, the dashed line 3mm inside the trim. Keep words, logos and anything that matters inside it.
4. The card. On the standard carrier you fix it with the glue dots supplied, so you choose where it goes. On the euro slot carrier, die cut slits hold it: ask us where they’ll go. Either way, put nothing important under it.
5. The euro slot, cut through the board for the display hook. Keep words and logos clear of it.

Our bleed and size help explains bleed in more detail.

How do I lay out a landscape gift card wallet?

Work on both wallet templates together: the outside file holds the front cover and the back, and the inside file holds the message panel and the card. Folded, the half of the outside without slits is the front cover, and the half the slits show through is the back.

1. The front cover, the half of the outside without slits, and the first thing anyone sees: your name and a greeting.
2. The back. The slits show through here, so keep words, the QR code and the web address clear of them.
3. The crease, down the middle of both sides. Keep words and logos off it.
4. The slits, two short diagonal cuts that hold the card’s top left and bottom right corners. They go right through the board.
5. The message panel, inside on the left: a greeting and lines to write To and From.
6. The card, inside on the right. It covers most of that half, so a colour or pattern is all the board there needs.

The card sits landscape, the way it sits in a purse, so it’s the right way up the moment the wallet is opened. Lay out the front of the card landscape, too.

How do I design a card sleeve for a gift card?

Design the outside only, front and back: a card sleeve is a pocket, and its inside faces are glued together. Put your name or logo on the front and the details on the back.

1. The thumb notch, cut into the top so the card comes out easily. Keep words clear of it.
2. The front, for your name or logo and the words Gift Card.
3. The back, for how to use the card and the short terms. At 87 x 60mm it’s the smallest format, so keep to a few short lines and let a QR code carry the rest.
4. The safe area, 3mm inside the edge, as on the other formats.

There’s no download for the sleeve: ask us for its template, which shows the crease lines and the thumb notch. A sleeve slips into a pocket or any envelope.

What should a gift card carrier say?

The carrier holds what the card has no room for: a greeting, who it’s to and from, what it’s for, how to use it, how long it lasts and where the full terms are.

1. How to use it, in a line or two.
2. Where to check the balance, in store, online or both.
3. Short terms, two or three lines, including how long the card lasts.
4. A QR code or web address for the full terms. Keep a QR code at least 15mm square, as on a card.
5. The safe area, 3mm inside the trim.

• The amount or item. Print it on the carrier only if every card in the order is for the same thing, and print the item or the amount, never both: a printed price is out of date the day your prices change. Otherwise, leave a line to write it on.
• Valid until. If your cards expire, the date must be clear and the terms fair. Write the date on the card when it’s sold, and say how long cards last in the terms on the carrier. See our gift card VAT and expiry rules.
• Terms. Two or three lines are enough, with the rest on your website, in the same words you use on the card and at the till. Our page of gift card terms and conditions has wording to copy.
• Leave off anything that dates: prices that may change, staff names and a printed year.

This is general information, not legal advice: your terms are your decision.

How do I make the carrier match the gift card?

Design the two together, because they’re seen at the same moment, but don’t expect identical colours: the carrier is printed on silk board and the card on PVC, and the same CMYK values look slightly warmer on board.

• Use the same CMYK values for both, and set both files up in CMYK.
• Repeat a picture, shape or pattern across the two, as the flowers do in the photo at the top of this page, rather than relying on two colours matching where they meet.
• Don’t run a band or a picture from the carrier onto the card. The colours differ, and on a standard carrier each card is placed by hand, so the join would show.
• One card can go in different carriers. A Christmas carrier can hold your everyday card, so the card stays the same all year. See Christmas gift cards for your business.

If a colour on the card has to be right, add a postal proof: we post you a few real cards before the full run. It’s for full colour cards, £65 +vat, and takes around 5 working days.

No artwork? Our in-house design service can set up the card and the carrier together. It’s £29 +vat for a card design, with no limit on reasonable amends: ask us to include the carrier in your quote.

How do I send carrier artwork and order?

Send the carrier artwork with your card artwork, and we’ll quote for both as one job. Email sales@cpcards.co.uk or use our gift card quote form, and tell us the carrier format. We often reply within minutes, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Send us:

• The format and how many, for the carriers and the cards.
• Your artwork, built on our template with its bleed, in the same files we take for a card: PDF, AI, EPS, PSD, TIFF, or a high-resolution JPG or PNG at 600dpi or more.
• Or your logo and wording, for our design service.

Every order gets a free email proof, so you can check the layout and wording before anything is printed. The colours on the proof are a guide only, because every screen shows colour differently. We check files for technical points such as bleed, resolution and colour, so read every word on the proof yourself.

The carriers are produced in line with your cards and arrive with them, not attached: you put the cards in. The standard display carrier comes with glue dots to fix each card, the euro slot carrier and the landscape wallet hold it in die cut slits, and the card sleeve is a pocket it slides into. If you order carriers on their own, we confirm the timing at proofing stage.

Production takes 7 working days from proof approval and payment. Express takes 3 to 4 working days: ask us for cost and availability. Delivery is free within Great Britain, and our delivery prices list the charges for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands.

How much do they cost?

Carriers start at £40.00 +vat for 25 standard display carriers, and gift cards at £75.00 +vat for 25. Each carrier format has its own price table on our card carriers page, and our guide to gift card printing costs has the card and carrier prices on one page.