Design a stamp card: Template ready in 20 minutes
Every week without a stamp card you lose regular customers without noticing – yet the card is ready in 20 minutes.
Designing your own stamp card takes no hours. You need five decisions: format, grid, reward, colors, rules. This guide walks you through a print-ready card in 20 minutes and shows you how to use the same design as a digital stamp card in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
Minutes 1 to 3: Choose format and tool
First, lock in the format or you'll be moving everything later. The standard is credit card size: 85.6 × 54 mm. It fits any wallet and phone case. If you need more than 12 stamp fields, use DIN A7 (74 × 105 mm).
Any tool works: Word, Pages, Canva, or your online printer's editor. Set the page size to your format plus 3 mm bleed on all sides. Turn on guides with 3 mm safety margin from the edge. Everything inside the guides is safe; anything outside can disappear during cutting.
Minutes 4 to 8: Build the front
The front has three jobs: recognition, reward, grid. In that order from top to bottom.
Logo and name at the top, maximum one quarter of the height. No logo? Your shop name in your house typeface works.
The reward as the largest text. Not "Stamp Card," but "10 stamps = 1 free coffee." The customer decides in one second whether to keep the card. They keep it for the reward.
The stamp grid takes up the bottom half. Two rows of five circles, 14 mm diameter, 4 mm spacing. Mark the last field with a star or "Free."
Want two reward tiers (say, an extra after 5 stamps and the main reward after 10), mark both fields. That keeps customers engaged. More than two tiers make the card confusing.
Trick: Number the fields small, 1 to 10. Customers see at a glance how far they are. The card feels like a progress bar.
Minutes 9 to 12: Set colors and typeface
The most common mistakes: too many colors, type too small. These rules keep you safe:
| Element | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Colors | Logo color + light background, maximum two colors |
| Stamp fields | White or very light, no pattern |
| Main typeface | Minimum 9 pt for body text, 14–18 pt for reward |
| Typefaces | One typeface, at most two weights (regular and bold) |
| Contrast | Dark text on light ground |
| Photos | High resolution only, otherwise use solid color |
Unsure? Use your website or storefront colors. Your customers know them and will instantly connect the card to your shop.
Minutes 13 to 16: Back side with rules
Most people skip the back. It prevents arguments at checkout later. Three to five short lines are enough:
- One stamp per purchase from €3.
- Card non-transferable, valid only at our location.
- Valid 12 months from issue date.
- No cash redemption, cannot be combined with other offers.
- Issue date: ______
Below that, add your address, hours, or website. If someone finds the card at home, they'll know where to redeem it. Wording examples for each rule are at How to write stamp card rules.
Minutes 17 to 20: Check reward and count
Before you export, verify the most important decision: Does the stamp count match your customer visit frequency?
- Café, bakery, takeout: 8–10 stamps. A customer visiting twice a week fills the card in five weeks.
- Ice cream, car wash, laundry: 6–8 stamps.
- Barber, cosmetics, nail salon: 4–6 stamps. At monthly visits, 10 stamps would take almost a year – nobody sticks with that.
Calculate the cost of goods for the reward against the accompanying sales. Example bakery: 8 stamps, average €4.50 per purchase, reward a bag of rolls worth €1.20. For €36 in sales you spend €1.20 – roughly 3 percent. That's a fair range. For more detail: Choosing the right reward for your loyalty program.
Then: Export as PDF with crop marks, choose 250–350 g cardstock, matte finish (so stamp ink holds). 250–500 cards are enough to start.
Self-check: Is your card ready?
- Format 85.6 × 54 mm with 3 mm bleed set?
- Reward larger than logo and shop name?
- Stamp fields at least 14 mm, light and pattern-free?
- Maximum two colors, type at least 9 pt?
- Rules on back (validity, issue date, address)?
- Stamp count matches your customers' visit frequency?
Same design as a digital stamp card
Once your paper card is done, you've made all the decisions you need for the digital version too: logo, colors, reward, count, rules. The difference is what the card can do afterward.
With a digital stamp card, the customer scans the QR code on your display once. The card lands in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet in seconds, no app download needed. Stamping happens via scan with your team's smartphone, no extra hardware (no card reader, no terminal). And because the card lives on their phone, you can reach them: push notifications on the lock screen, automatic reminders for inactive customers, a birthday offer.
Designing digitally is even faster than on paper. During onboarding, stampa pulls your logo and colors from your website automatically. You choose stamp count and reward, the AI creates a print-ready display with QR code for you. Your branding appears on card, display, and public page in every plan. How both versions perform in real life is shown in Paper stamp card vs. digital stamp card.
What happens if you do nothing
Without a stamp card you lose regular customers every week without noticing. They come once, twice, then stop – because the shop next door has a card and yours doesn't. You don't see it in your register, you just see sales stagnating.
A paper card helps, but it stays at home. A digital card lives in their phone, which nobody forgets. You reach customers before they switch to another shop.
Conclusion
Designing your own stamp card is doable in 20 minutes: lock in format, build the front with logo, reward and grid, add three to five rules on the back, keep colors and type calm, match the count to visit frequency. That gives you a card that works.
Want to take the same decisions digital so the card never gets lost and you can reach your regular customers? Start free with stampa for up to 100 active cards – no credit card, no risk. Set up in 5 minutes. Start free now.