Pixelated popup card

I‘d been scratching my head trying to come up with a card for my hubby {AKA the non-romantic type}. I finally decided to make him this pixely popup heart card!

I've seen similar styled pop-ups before and thought a heart would work really well. 

The card is also really minimal (which I love) and take about 20 minutes to make (that includes the card, insert and envelope).

Step 1: Print and cut insert template

Download the popup insert template and print out on to a sheet of paper or thin card. I used pink paper but you can use any color you want. Using some scissors trim around the edge of the template.

Comments

[seth42]

This is a great and super creative instructable and I am really glad it was posted. Whatever contest it was in, it deserved to win.

[Indy cloe]

Looks like mine craft

[solielxxx3]

it doesnt let me print out the pdf !! why ???

[jessyho862013]

thanks for this and i also make some too but is the different one is a cube and guys u can go to my profile and check it out ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[anne_estefany]

I loveed! =D

[Alberta Leong]

Super nice!

[HMice]

Awesome! Here's the one I made. Not as good as urs tho... As you can see, two of the little things I scored to much and they broke. :( It still looks pretty good for a first attempt in my opinion. Thanks again for the great "ible"

[ToolboxGuy]

Cannot print the PDF for some reason!
I can print other PDFs from here, but Adobe Reader crashes when I attempt to print. Can you post a version which does not use the fancy fonts, so I can see if that is the cauuse?

Thanks!

[kate12345]

Hi Toolboxguy,

I uploaded one without fonts to my site. Link as follows:

http://www.minieco.co.uk/images/feb12/pixelated-heart-no-fonts.pdf

If you have further problems then let me know what version of adobe reader you are using.

Cheers
Kate

[ToolboxGuy]

Thanks!
I found out it wasn't fonts, but my new HP printer, which has their "web tools" feature, to direct print any image (think snag-it)
It couldn't handle the idea of using Adobe to print PDFs - go figure.

I uninstalled all Adobe products, rebooted, reinstalled Reader, still failed.
Uninstalled the HP tool, and your original worked!

Sorry to put you through the rework for nothing....

:)

TBG

[kate12345]

Hi Toolboxguy,

Glad you sorted it.

No worries...it only took a few minutes...

[ToolboxGuy]

By the way, my wife said it's one of the best things she's received for Valentine's Day ever!

Since we've been together for 31 years, that's saying something special!

[kate12345]

yippee!! congrats on 31 years! :)

[kate12345]

Glad it all went well for you all!

Hope you had an ace valentines day. My hubby likes his card too so that's cool!

[londobali]

Fantastic!!
The mrs loved it soooo much! :)

oh, and i also combined the idea with the "Woven together Valentine" ible...
:D

[manderson27]

Wonderful! Thank you... of course I just had to write in mine... "I love ever Bit of you" seemed just perfect! :)

[Kstheph]

I copied your idea and my geek boyfriend loved it!!

[Kstheph]

Thaaaks! This card is gorgeous, original and SUPER easy, I made one and is perfect!. You save my Vday!!
Special thanks fot the template :D

[bomblol]

Just thought I'd let you know I ended up using this to make a valentines day card for my girlfriend!
http://imgur.com/a/nv2Tv

[kate12345]

Yeah...looks great bomblol. Pikachu very cute! I'm so happy that so many people have made this card! ^_^

[earlyflyer]

Made it! Came our great and pretty easy to do! So much better than store-bought. Thanks for the great Instructable.

[rickycurrier]

This is so much better then a store card. THANK YOU!

[medharaghav]

excellent Idea.. I will try it.. I have a question what is meant by valley fold and score.. I am new to these term please guide. Also I don't have craft knife,, is there any other way I can make fine cuts..

[ToolboxGuy]

I used a simple razor blade to make cuts, as they are all straight lines.

Valley means simply a "V" shape fold in the paper.

Score means to scratch, but not cut through.

[kate12345]

Thanks Nataliedanger for explaining the folds. There is a great article al all about paper folding on wikipedia if you want to know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_fold

I think you definitely need a craft knife (X-acto knife) for this project. As Nataliedanger said they are very inexpensive and really handy for all papercrafting projects.

Good luck!

[nataliedanger]

You can think of folds two ways: valley and mountain. They look just like they sound :) The "valley" has the fold on the bottom, or folded down; while the "mountain" has the fold on top, or folded up. Does that make sense?

Scoring the paper is to take a sharp (but not sharp enough to slice the paper) object and draw it across the place where you're going to fold, creating an indent. It ensures your folds happen precisely and exactly where you want them.

If you don't have a craft knife, you can use a utility or carpet knife if you have one. Otherwise, there aren't any comparable substitutes that I know of. But, your local WalMart should sell X-acto knives for a few bucks. They're worth investing in :)

[Janipun]

I might be embarrassing myself here with a stupid question but how did you make the templates? Do you have software especially for this? I'm asking because I love this tutorial and would really like to make my sister a chicken version of this (long story). Many thanks!

[kate12345]

Hi Janipun,

I drew the template in a program called Illustrator. You can hand-draw a template though (I usually do this to begin with...when I am figuring my projects out). Squared paper is good to use when you are planning a design for this particular type of card.

Good luck! :)

[Janipun]

Thanks for the reply. I have heard of Illustrator, and it did occur to me that at a push I could even use Excel with the columns and rows set to squares. I'll have a go at the heart card first and then work my way up to animals!

Great tutorial!

[BytePilot]

Hiya,
This is excellent. Much delight.

Here is a DXF file for those of us with cnc cutters of various types.
Black lines for cut, red lines for score.

[kate12345]

Hi BytePilot...thanks for doing the .dxf file....really kind of you.

[BytePilot]

No problem at all.
Thanks for posting something to make Best Beloved smile...

[BytePilot]

All manner of fun you can have with this pop up idea.

[kate12345]

Looks great!! I would love to explore the popup thing more..

Check out Peter Callesen's work...not popup but amazing paper cutting/folding/bending etc
http://www.davidairey.com/the-fragile-magic-of-paper/

[DrakerDG]

Very nice pop up card, simple and beautiful!

[sitearm]

@Kate12345; Hi! I tweeted this and sent it to my crafty haha sister and nieces. Cheers! Site

[kate12345]

Thanks sitearm :)

[axeman2ooo]

Wow! I actually found your website the other day and built one of these already!
here is a photo of my version (I used two colours, so it wasn't apparent from the outside what was happening on the inside!)

thanks again!!

[kate12345]

Hi Axeman...your card looks great. Colour combo fantastic...I should have made some in red!

I put an outside bit on too (step 6 of the instructable) probably should have made that a bit clearer.

I'm so pleased at the amount of people that have actually made this card. Very cool!

[axeman2ooo]

I was considering doing a printed version, but I ran out of time for V day... Wanted to print one colour on the flat card, with a different colour for the raised sections... maybe next time!

thanks for doing up an easy to understand intructable! :D