Make a pop-up book!

Fun fact: I graduated from the same high school as pop-up book king, Robert Sabuda! You may have seen some of his books before- he’s done tons of pop-up versions of famous fairytales and other children’s books like The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, etc.

His website, robertsabuda.com, also has a whole bunch of awesome tutorials for making your own pop-ups, including a STAR WARS POP-UP BOOK!!!

The pop-ups make awesome cards for pretty much any occasion. I was in need of a Get Well card, so instead of buying a cheesy Hallmark card, I decided to make a pop-up card using the Bat tutorial here: http://www.robertsabuda.com/popmake/animals/bat/popmake_bat-step1.asp

Not only is it handmade (10 times cooler), but it’s THREE DEE (cool to the third power). So thats like Cool x 1000.

I’d suggest reading through the instructions before starting, and gathering all of the tools you’ll need!

Tools you’ll need:

paper – something heavy like cardstock works well for the base of the card. I used scrapbooking paper to “line” the base, though this step is totally optional. I used black construction paper for the bat.

sharp scissors

scoring/folding tool – I used a knitting needle. You could also use a chopstick, bamboo skewer, and old pen, etc.

glue – I used a quick dry craft glue that’s similar to rubber cement. Glue sticks or double sided tape will also work well. White glue will work if you have the time and patience to let it dry.

printer or markers

extra decorating doo-dads – like googly eyes!


Here’s my finished card!

Tips:

I resized the templates from the tutorial to the size I wanted (7.5″ wide to fit on an 8.5″ wide card) and then printed them on plain white paper to use as a guide, so I wouldn’t have all those dotted lines on my finished product.

I printed the front of the card and the inside square with text before I started. You could just as easily use markers/colored pencils/etc. to do that part, too. I made up the little blurb myself… I know, I know. I should totally work for a greeting card company!

To get fun edges, invest in some novelty scissors.

Use your scoring tool to score the fold lines before folding, and then slide it over the folds during folding to really get a sharp crease.

To make the “Like a bat out of hell” part stick out, I glued it to a little piece of craft foam. Don’t forget the googly eyes!

There you go! If your card recipient isn’t impressed with your 3D pop-up card, then I don’t believe they deserved a card in the first place.


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