May 2026

Making a matchbook

I had the bright idea to make myself a business card…. but not just any business card. A functional business card you could use to light your Shabbat candles. After making the first two prototypes I decided these would be ideal with a few tweaks.

I love the way laser engraving looks on cardboard and wanted a similar aesthetic here. So, I ordered a couple different weights of craft paper to see which one felt right, I ordered black staples, some adhesive backed striker paper and finally I ordered matchbooks. Ordering the matchbooks was because I could not figure out how to buy small quantities of the matches I needed, these I disassembled and used the matches in my own creations.

Below is the image I used for laser engraving, I was able to get the crop marks on there which sped things up nicely but was only able to fit two at a time on my laser engraver. A bone folder was imperative for good creases and assembly.