Neon Gradient Border Card
Rainbow gradient border that fades in on hover using a background pseudo-element positioned behind the card with z-index -1.
Neon Gradient Border Card the 2nd of 20 designs in the 20 CSS Cards with Animations collection. The design is implemented in pure CSS — no JavaScript required. Copy the HTML and CSS panels below into your project. Because the demo is pure CSS, it works in any framework or templating engine you happen to use. The design honours prefers-reduced-motion and uses real semantic markup, so it ships accessibility-ready out of the box.
Live preview
The code
<div class="stage-2">
<div class="card-neon">
<div class="neon-icon">⚡</div>
<h4>Neon Border</h4>
<p>Gradient border reveals on hover using pseudo-element z-index trick.</p>
</div>
</div> .card-neon {
width: 200px;
padding: 22px;
border-radius: 12px;
background: #111118;
border: 1px solid transparent;
position: relative;
transition: transform 0.3s;
}
.card-neon::before {
content: "";
position: absolute;
inset: -1px;
border-radius: 13px;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #7c6cff, #ff6c8a, #3de8f5);
z-index: -1;
opacity: 0;
transition: opacity 0.3s;
}
.card-neon:hover::before {
opacity: 1;
}
.card-neon:hover {
transform: translateY(-3px);
}
.card-neon:hover .neon-icon {
box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(124, 108, 255, 0.8);
}
.neon-icon {
width: 36px;
height: 36px;
border-radius: 10px;
background: rgba(124, 108, 255, 0.2);
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
font-size: 18px;
margin-bottom: 12px;
transition: box-shadow 0.3s;
}
.card-neon h4 {
font-size: 13px;
font-weight: 700;
color: #fff;
margin-bottom: 4px;
}
.card-neon p {
font-size: 11px;
color: var(--ccg-muted);
line-height: 1.5;
}
/* parent stage backdrop (so the demo renders standalone) */
[class^="stage-"] {
width: 100%;
min-height: 200px;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
position: relative;
padding: 2.5rem 1.5rem;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.stage-2 {
background: #07070f;
}
/* gallery vars + keyframes (so the demo renders standalone) */
:root {
--ccg-bg: #0a0a0f;
--ccg-surface: #111118;
--ccg-surface2: #17171f;
--ccg-surface3: #1e1e28;
--ccg-border: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.15);
--ccg-border2: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.13);
--ccg-accent: #7c6cff;
--ccg-pink: #ff6c8a;
--ccg-green: #1ed98a;
--ccg-amber: #f5a84a;
--ccg-cyan: #3de8f5;
--ccg-text: #f0eeff;
--ccg-muted: #6b6987;
--ccg-label: #9896b8;
--ccg-mono: "DM Mono", "Fira Code", monospace;
--ccg-sans: "Syne", sans-serif;
}