Make a Cool Pop-Up Landscape Postcard

Before I moved back home from school in NYC, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art one last time. I found myself checking out the gift shop and saw a really cool pop-up postcard that reminded me of the neighborhood of Muenster, Germany where I was born. It was like $15 or something (NYC+museum=expensive) and that was way too far over my budget as an unemployed student (Im no longer a student, just unemployed). Once I got back home, I thought it might be cool to see if I could recreate it. My mom has a small clay German-looking statue at her house, so I used this as a sort of model in my design.

What You Need:
-- some card-stock (or a blank postcard)
-- a cutting surface
-- an Exacto-knife or box cutter
-- a ruler/straight edge
-- a pencil

Step 1 Make the Postcard

As I said, it is a good idea to use card-stock here: it's thicker and stronger than regular printer paper and will make it a lot easier when you begin folding. I grabbed an old birthday card I had lying around and used this to decide on the dimensions of my postcard. It was 16 cm X 22 cm, so I just went with that size. Using your Exacto-knife, trim your card-stock to this size (or any other you would prefer). Don't yet fold it, as this will happen in a later step.

Comments

[lotus1922]

With the candle idea, I could see this being adapted to make a great Christmas mantle decoration! like those porcelain lighted village houses-

[Rachel Lee]

COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[caitlinsdad]

Nice! Once you figured out the technique for this, you can try printing a picture or landscape and turn it into a pop-up. It looks better with a contrasting backer sheet like I did in my Valentines Day popup card.

[Kiteman]

Very nice, although you may need to fold it inside another piece of card to protect the delicate parts when somebody pulls it out of an envelope.

[joejoerowley]

Very Cool! Looks Great!

[LinuxH4x0r]

Wow, amazing detail.