projects #18, 19, 20: pop-up cards

I've never been a big fan of pop-up cards: I've always thought that they were a little cheesy. However, since taking my class with Esther I've been inspired to look through my copy of Magic Books and Paper Toys. In it Esther has some cute, simple pop-up card ideas, and I decided to try some with the kids I babysit. This served me well when I went into the city for my internship the first day. An Indian book artist and her family were in town and Esther had them come up to the studio so they could share their work with each other. She had two boys, 7 and 14, and they were very polite but clearly bored during the meeting. After a little hesitation on my part, I decided to make some little crafts with them to distract them so the adults could talk, and we ended up making some of these cards, too! The youngest boy came up with some really fun pop out shapes of his own design: he clearly takes after his mother.

Since Mother's Day was coming up (this was about a month ago that I started doing these)  I started with the idea of a heart popping out of the middle. Because it popped out so far you could see inside the card a lot, so to compensate I decorated the inside with multicolored polka dots. The little girls I showed this card to were big fans.

This was another fun card. When you open and close it the bird's mouth also opens and closes. I drew a little nest underneath him to support his tiny body that is supporting his giant head.

Travis, a little boy I babysat once with his brother and sister, made me this version of the bird card. I love how he wrote "cheep cheep" inside the mouth instead of in a word bubble. I also love the little bird feet poking out the bottom!

This card was just a simple pop-out triangle. I'd seen these done where the triangle stands on one point and the opening opens to the sky, making a cup or vase shape, so I wanted to try it the opposite way and see what I came up with. Thus the umbrella card was born. I colored the inside of the card on this one as well so that it looked like the inside of the umbrella. I also drew the handle as if it continued inside as well. Kinda cute, but I'm not really sure whey you would give someone this card. Maybe if you knew an old man who snored a lot? ("It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...")

Here's that same shape facing the opposite way. Of course I had to make it a carrot.

Here's another that's taller and thinner. I drew some little flowers, cut them out, then glued them on to make this card. It's pretty, but it doesn't open flat. Oops.

So, lesson learned, sometimes it pays to revisit an old idea: you can usually find a way to make it better than you thought.