New York, New York, It's a Wonderful Pop Up Card

This is a wonderful New York skyline pop up greeting card by Popupology.

I opened their pdf in CorelDraw and added color to the buildings in several shades of grey. The grey gives the buildings more depth, I think, although you can't really see it in the photo.

I printed the card, then cut and scored it with my Silhouette Cameo using registration marks. This design would be easy to hand cut, as well.

A new (to me) trick that I used on the "Happy Birthday" on the front of the card was to apply a sheet of double stick adhesive to the glitter paper before cutting the letters.

For this card I used a sheet that is labeled "3M 468MP 200MP Adhesive" which I got as a free sample from Lane Graphics, a producer of membrane switches, PCB switch assemblies, and graphic overlays. They will send you a grab bag of scraps of various adhesive types for $3.29, which is mostly to cover the cost of postage. Visit them on ebay for grab bags as well as larger quantities of adhesive. Cool stuff for crafters, and it keeps the scraps out of landfill!

To cut the letters on my card, I peeled off one side of the backing on the adhesive and adhered it to the back side of my silver glitter card stock. I wanted to cut it glitter side down, but the glitter side would not adhere to my cutting mat, so I ended up taping it to the mat all around the edges.



First time out I forgot to mirror the letters, but I got it on the second try. For Cameo users who are curious, I cut it with the knife set at depth 5, using the "magnet sheet" setting.

After cutting, I popped all the letters out of the backing.

I laid the "negative" of the HAPPY BIRTHDAY cutout on my card and used it as a guide to place the letters perfectly. Position the card front under the cutout and tape both pieces down to your work surface with low tack tape. Peel the backing off the letters one at a time and place them in the cutouts.  When you are done placing the letters carefully pull off the tape and the stencil.

Wedding in a Barn Pop Up Card

I made this custom greeting card to match the wedding venue.  The best photo I could find of the barn was not that great, and I didn't want to ask the couple for one.

Word was the bride was planning to wear cowboy boots and a denim jacket over her dress, so I added those details to the silhouette.

What a challenging design.  The porch roof, gah!  It took me one entire Saturday to engineer that.

As always, I struggled with what to put on the front of the card.  It's not my strong point.

The construction of the pop up card is interesting.  The card is folded into thirds, rather than in half.  The porch is cut on the top panel.  This top panel folds down behind the middle panel (the part with the barn).  The bottom third of the card is the floor, where the "best wishes" sentiment is.

There is a long horizontal slit in the middle panel allowing the entire porch to slide through from the back.  The roof is doubled, with a fold line at the front edge.

With the porch in place, the pillars are then affixed through slits in the floor.

The rest is a standard origamic architecture folded design.

I am not offering this template for two reasons: mostly, because I would like it to be unique for the couple who received it, but also because the thought of cleaning up the template and writing coherent instructions makes me want to just go lie down for awhile.

Here are some illustrations, however, to give you an idea how the construction works. 

This is my initial draft from the photo I found.  First I had to draw a straight-on view from an angled photo. 

Here I have done some work on the porch.  I was trying to get the placement right and working on the colors.

Final pattern.  You can see I made the pillars much fatter because in my first prototype the skinny pillars crumpled when the card was closed.

Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: pop up cards, movable and mechanical cards, digital crafts and unusual papercrafts.

Need a Valentine?

Try one of these Valentine heart cards and papercrafts: pop up valentine cards, sliceform hearts, origamic architecture (8 bit) heart, and miscellaneous valentine paper crafts.
Card in a Box

Conversation Heart Circle Card

Positive/Negative Heart Frame

Sliceform Icosidodecahedron Hearts

Polaroid Camera Pop Up Card Valentine


Pop Up Scherenschnitte Hearts and Doves

Double Heart Spiral Card

Pile of Hearts Pop Up Card

Froebel Weaving Valentine Treat Pocket

Kaleidoscope Valentines

Heart in Hand Snowflake

Paper Strip Woven Hearts

Sliceform Heart and Stand

Incire Valentine

Celtic Woven Heart

Solid Sliceform Heart

LOVE Pop Up Card

Origamic Architecture Pop Up Valentine Card

Fractal Pop Up Valentine

Hot Stuff

Junk Mail Valentine

Heart Pop Up Card

Coffee Cup Pop Up Valentine Card

Heart Spinner

Pop Up Heart Card

Heart Felt Greeting

Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: pop up cards, movable and mechanical cards, digital crafts and unusual papercrafts.
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Quick Halloween Silhouette Cards

All of the shapes used on these silhouette cards are from the dingbat font ILL OCtoBer.

After arranging the Halloween motifs to my satisfaction, I added a frame and welded everything together with CorelDraw.

The effect is like scherenschnitte paper cutting, but far easier to design.

Flat front cards



Window pop up cards





Download files: PDF, DXF, Silhouette Studio, SVG

Files download for free; contribute what you wish to support this blog.  Suggested amount for this design: $1.00.

How to assemble flat front card

For all files black lines are cut lines, red lines are score lines. Cut the file, fold on the score line, and back the silhouette with contrasting paper. I used origami paper.

How to assemble window style pop up card

See this post for more information about folding window pop up cards.

For all files black lines are cut lines, red lines are score lines.

Cut the file. With the right side of the card facing you, crease the score lines.

The top horizontal line is a valley fold. The next score line down is a mountain fold. The two small creases forming the center fold line of the card are valley folds. The bottom horizontal line is a valley fold.




Back the window with contrasting paper if you wish.

Remember to fold the backing paper into an L shape to cover the opening on the bottom of the card as well as the opening on the upright portion of the card!

Glue the window pop up into a base card of coordinating or contrasting color. See an example here.

Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: pop up cards, movable and mechanical cards, digital crafts and unusual papercrafts.

Top 10 Halloween Papercrafts

Some of my favorite Halloween projects from Extreme Cards and Papercrafting.

Bat, Cat, and Hat Snowflake

This bat, cat, and hat, Halloween themed snowflake (also good as a wreath or doily) is made from dingbats from Halloweenies and Bats-Symbols.

Haunted House Pop Up Card

Modified from the haunted house printable from PaperToys.

Origamic Architecture Skull

The mouth is a little tricky on this skull card, but the rest is easy.

Pumpkin Wreath

A paper chain joined to make a wreath.

Pumpkin Cube Pop Up Card

Printable pumpkin cube from Paper Box World easily modified to make a pop up card.

Pumpkin Sliceform

The solid version of the pumpkin sliceform. There's also a lattice (open) pumpkin sliceform.

Spider Treat Pocket

The triangle pocket is ingeniously woven through the black paper to create a two-sided pattern.

Halloween Spinner

The original, the free pumpkin spinner cutting file! (After I posted this pattern a "for sale" version appeared on a well known cutting file site.)

Mummy Card

Actually a sympathy card for someone with a concussion, but it could work as a mummy.

Halloween Foldover Card

More fun with dingbats. This is made with two colors of card stock, alternately folded across in layers from the right and left.

Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: pop up cards, movable and mechanical cards, digital crafts and unusual papercrafts.