Spinner Card Templates - DOMESTIC HEIGHTS

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.

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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:

Neenah Collections Assorted Set from Amazon – Basic primary colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
Metallic Shimmer Assorted Set from Amazon – This set is a little lighter in weight but the colors are beautiful in 3D
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
Assorted Pink Set from Paper Paper – This is a must-have for paper flower makers. The variety is perfect to create a bouquet.
Assorted Purple Set from Paper Paper – This is another must-have for paper flower makers. I love the variety of finishes in this pack.
Metallic Variety Set from Paper Paper – I don’t know any avid paper crafter that doesn’t use Stardream metallics line of shimmer paper. It is the only metallic cardstock line that I know of that has such variety and has colored cores.

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.