Interactive Cards: A Windmill Tutorial

I am back!!!  February was a rough month.  I had just finished the inside of my interactive card and was feeling the "happy dance".. Headed off to work, thinking the weekend would see me finishing it and publishing soon.  Well life can change in a moment, while walking down the hall and thinking about life, I felt and "heard" a pop in my knee and I was down for the count.  I understand pain, but to experience that white hot searing pain of acute injury and the awareness that walking was impossible was a new experience.  Good thing I work in a medical facility, wheel chairs are easily acquired.  I was whisked off to ED, MRI, Ortho, and medicated before the reality hit that it was going to be a long way to the top of those stairs and my craft room.  Well, my saga continues but with help I can get upstairs and when finished, with help can get back down the stairs.  So, on my return to the craft room, What did I make?  A Windmill!!!

Cute isn't it?  Wonder how that will fit into a card.   I made a movie.

Ok, lets see how to make this:  The principle is on a box idea.  We are familiar with these, the exploding box,  box card, and Karen Burniston's Flower Pot Pop Up.  I just made a closed box and used a triangle as the element.

There is a Windmill Stamp in the Club Scrap March Kit Delft.  I used this for inspiration.  First started out by measuring the stamp.  I determined that the base is slightly narrower than the height.  I began here.

The windmill stamp is on the right 

I drew out several different sizes of triangles to get the exact size, keeping in mind that I did not want a giant card, 5X7 was goal and I needed room for the blades.  Then I made a model and adjusted the blades and figured out the construction.

Ended up with an equilateral triangle with base of 2" and height of 2.5".  At this point it is important that the triangle be perfect.  All the angles must be exact.

We could go into the geometry of this whole exercise, but in reality, just use a ruler and draw 2 lines.  I used a t-square to keep everything straight.  one line is 2"  (the base) and crossed by line that is 2.5" (the height) and connect the lines.  Then I drew tabs onto one side and the bottom.

Next I placed this on a folded piece of paper and created this:

Not the easiest to see, but the triangle pattern in first picture is represented on the left, creases are where the lines were drawn.  The triangle to the left is another whole triangle, tabs are shown.

This is converted to the full pattern.  Dotted lines are the fold lines.  This was carefully cut and scored.  The Inked embellishments were added, while flat and the windows cut out.  The blades were added on before the closing up the "box".   I used an xacto knife to cut out the "windows" and glued yellow paper behind the holes.  Inked up the panes and added a white gel pen outline to indicate frames around the windows and door.  A brad holds the blades.  

Blades were also inked to add dimension.  

I created the card base the same as in all my other cards.  Cutting the base and adding the backing papers to the inside, leaving space along the gutter (the center fold).  The Center fold on the front of the windmill must line up with the gutter.  I added the glue to one tab and with the windmill open attached that side down.  Then flattened everything, removed the strip from the second tab, folded the card, perfect.

Next I needed to adjust the blades.

I had made the blades too long and nothing seemed to keep them in my card, so I just trimmed them down until they stayed within the card.  

Perfect!!

That is it, the inside of the card is nearly done.  I just needed to add some additional focal points.  

I always keep my failed backgrounds, you never know when you might need them!!!

Using a tulip die, I cut tulips from the backgrounds above, you wouldn't know, but the green is leaves and the yellow/pink are the flowers.  Stamped a the shoe, colored with copics, added a sentiment.  The other side was left blank for a message to be written .

The front is simple and complements the inside.  I try to keep the front simple.  

I I fussy cut one of the papers in the kit, added a ribbon , the embellishment and a sentiment.  

Well this seems long and involved.  But it isn't.  Getting the pattern made was the hard part.  Remember when making popups, the gutter or center is where "most of the action is" and both sides must be symmetrical.  If all things are equal and it is foldable, it will work.  Just experiment.  

I will post February Interactive card soon.  In retrospect, this mechanism needed to come first. The Succulent Card relies on Parallelogram and is more complicated.  In the scheme of things, this is a very simple pop up.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Crafting,

Josette

Links: 

Club Scrap   

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