These spinner cards are super cute and super easy to make. This tutorial goes over the basics of making spinner cards and includes a few free templates to try it out yourself.
While my favorite kind of multi-dimensional card is the pop-up card, these spinner card rank pretty close behind. While some pop-up cards can get a little complicated to assemble, these spinner cards on the contrary are super simple to put together.
It took me a while to realize that you don’t have to rely on the recipient to spin the hanging piece. You can wind up your spinner ahead of time before placing it in the envelope and when the recipient opens the card, the spinner will be let loose and do its thing.
You can accessorize your spinner card more but I find just using printed cardstock adds enough flair to each card that I can just stick to the basic cutout layers.
As always, I’ve left out the sentiment on these templates but you can add your own and customize it for the specific occasion.
Materials for Spinner Card
Cardstock – I like to use medium weight cardstock with colored cores for card making. Here are some of my favorite brands:
- Recollection Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
- Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte-colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
- Poptone Assorted Variety Pack – This is the perfect peppy assortment of colors of heavy cardstock. It’s a heavy cardstock assortment with colors I actually use frequently for cardmaking.
- Seasonal Assorted Variety Pack – This is a slight variation on the Poptone assortment and has a quite few neutrals that complement almost any accent color.
- Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go-to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.
Glue – While I used a little bit of super glue for the string and tape to hang the string, I normally prefer different glue that doesn’t warp the paper for card making. Here are some of my favorites:
String – Anything works here. I used a thicker thread.
Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.
Templates – the dragonfly, butterfly and hummingbird spinner card SVG and printable templates are free and available in my resource library.
How to make Spinner Cards
Step 1: Cut out the pieces using the template
I like to use the light grip mat for paper whenever possible. I find the standard green matt a little too sticky and hard to clean up scraps.
Step 2: Fold the card base
Unless you are making the z-fold card, this template only requires one crease. I just fold it in half and crease the edge with a scraper.
Step 3: Attached the spinner
You can either attach the spinning piece to the base of the card or to the layer on top. Whatever glue you are using to assemble the rest of the card works for the spinner. I just used some tape because I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to wait for the glue to dry.
For the butterfly card, I attached 2 spinners back to back to create a double colored spinner. A single spinner also works which is what I did for the other 2 cards.
Step 4: Assemble the layer of the card
Once the spinner is attached, just glue together all the layers.
Don’t forget, you can always turn the spinner a few times before placing it in the envelop to wind it up for the recipient.
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