Pop-Up Birthday Card

• Have you ever made something so cool together with someone else that you wished there were a commemorative birthday card for it?

• Do you love pop-up paper crafts?

• Are you not easily despaired by exact mm measurements and craft knives or alternatively have the patience for multiple trial and error?

If you answered yes to the above questions, or you feel maverick enough to try something completely crazy even though you're neither interested nor qualified, this instructable is for you.

I'll explain some basic techniques for pop-up cards, and show you the extremely specific design example of my card in more detail. I'll also show you a slightly more transferable way to use one of the individual pop-up designs (the cake) in a card.

Step 1 Materials

This is an extraordinarily cheap project. Well, compared to the one it's commemorating, it is. For a birthday card, it's doing alright.

For one DIN A5 card (double postcard size) I bought:

3DIN A4 pages of white cardstock, 300g/m²
2 DINA5 pages of contrasting background colours, in my example grey and light brown.
1 extra tacky birthday card (optional alternative: 1 DIN A4 page of contrasting colour)

That's it.

I also used:

crayons
all purpose glue
craft knife
cutting surface
ruler
pencil

Comments

[yamayka]

...Hey TangerineBadger, this is so cool ! Popup card are addictive.
Heres another popup card idea

[belsey]

Very nice, and I especially like seeing the photograph which inspired it. To put icing on the cake (metaphorically, of course) all you would need is to figure out how to make something similar without having to flip open the plate. There should be a way to do this with hidden tabs (you really can do anything with paper, an Xacto knife and glue), but unfortunately I've never haven't had the time to work that particular puzzle out. If you really do have too much time on your hands that could be your next pop-up!

[PenfoldPlant]

This was simply an amazing present to receive in the mail. Thank you so much!
Brilliant project and, of course, a fantastic write-up :-D

[splazem]

I used to make these! Good job, it looks awesome!

[TangerineBadger]

Thank you! It's really addictive!

[ChrysN]

Cool way to personalize a card! I love the little cake.

[TangerineBadger]

Thanks!