Futurama Meme Gift Card

My good friend is graduating, so I decided to make a card for him which combines his love of Futurama and internet memes.

I got the idea for this after I stumbled upon a similar "happy birthday" card someone made for their friend, and I thought it was a funny way to give someone cash, rather than just buying a store bought card. I quickly drafted up a more formal version of the card in Adobe Illustrator, and then experimented around making the arm holding money a popout. I usually get things right the first time, and this was no exception.

Follow the next steps to download and assemble your own.

There are a few materials, and things, you'll need to have access to:

• Ruler
• X-Acto Knife
• Scissors
• Cutting Mat
• Double Sided Tape
• Printer
• Cardstock Paper

Attached as PDFs to this step are two different versions of the card I designed. One is "happy birthday!", and the other is "congratulations!".

Choose the appropriate one to download.

I took mine to Staples to get printed, and just about anywhere you can expect it to be about $1.00 per page. There are three pages, so that isn't too bad, but if you want to save some money you could print double sided.

Move the piece of paper with the "arm" and "popout" off to the side, we only need the "main card" parts.

If you printed the card out on two separate pieces of paper you'll need to attach the outside and inside to be one complete piece. Start off by flipping one of the pieces of paper over (noting where the edge of printing ends). Place a boarder of double sided tape around the edge of the entire side, then one single strip down the middle, where the card will fold in half.

Keep in mind not to place the tape where it will get entirely trimmed off.

Now we need to align the two pieces of paper. Be sure the front and back are both flipped the right directions, so the inside of the card isn't upside down.

Once you have the two pieces together, bust out the X-Acto knife and Ruler, and trim off the remaining white boarders around the outside of the card. If you're worried about the card not being aligned correctly after taping it, there's a pretty decent margin of error where you can cut into the colored print, and it wont be too noticeable.

The card should print out the be 9.5 inches wide. We're going to make a score along the middle of the card so it will fold more easily and cleanly. If we didn't do this, and tried to fold it, the ink would most likely crack and different stress marks would appear on the paper.

Measure out to the center of the card on the top and bottom, and make a few marks to line the ruler up with. Go ahead and make the score with your X-Acto knife.

If you're not comfortable with how much pressure to exert (as to not cut the paper), you can use the backside of the knife, rather than the blade.

Carefully cut out the arm.

I made the black lines around the boarder a tiny bit larger, so you'll have some leeway. Make a score on the backside of the arm along the white flap, so it folds behind. Next, carefully cut the lines inside of the hand (reference the pictures), so it'll be able to hold some money.

The popout box should be much easier to cut out, and you can even trim it down (which I recommend) once you score and fold the box the proper way. Reference the pictures to do this, it's hard to explain, but really easy to visually understand.

This is probably the most complicated part of the entire assembly.

Start off easy by attaching the arm. Line up the position as to where it goes (it overlaps where the red ends, a bit) before you start putting tape on it. Get a piece of tape and place it on the white part of the arm. Trim off the excess, then attach it to the main card.

The popout box needs a piece of tape covering the bottom of the rightmost fold, and the top of the leftmost fold. It is oriented the same way on the card as the previous step. Attach the popout box to the card (DO NOT attach it to the arm yet).

Press down the popout box flat, so the folds engage. Hold the arm to the left side of the card (with the box still flat), and slowly close the card. Press firmly where popout box is, to affix it to the arm.

It should be fully assembled now!

That's pretty much it!

It's best to fold the money in half twice (the long way), then in half again (the short way) to fit in the the hand. There's plenty of negative space around the hand to inscribe your own personal message to the card receiver.

I also suggest letting the card chill under a stack of books (without money in the hand) for a day, just to help it flatten out better.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask/tell me.