I have followed Karen as she moved from Sizzix to Elizabeth Craft, and as I was anxiously awaiting her new product line, hoping to have more dies that incorporated movement at CHA, I learned that there will be no new releases beause she is no longer designing for EZ and has yet to find a home.
So, I decided to forge a path and start a posting about how to make these magical cards. So over the next few months, I am going to teach you about the basic mechanisms and how they are created to make your cards move. Hope you will enjoy this exploration. There is much experimentation with this process, but that in itself is magical. . . . . . . .
Are you ready.
Here is a video of the card I made for this posting.
This card is based on Parallelograms, What you say? Simple little boxes but provide a foundation of movement for many different mechanisms.
The parallelogram is a rectangle with 3 parallel folds.
The folds can be anywhere just parallel and when folded must be rectangular and not square.
The center of the card is the gutter and is where all movement comes from.
By not placing the backing cards up to the fold and leaving this area open allows for increased opening of the card. If you look at the video, the first demo shows the large dragonfly popping up. This is because the fold is allowed to open up flat.
In this card the Parallelogram will span the center fold. With glueing flaps folded (the end tabs) place the center line on the fold with the shortest tab to the left
Mark the end of the tab.
The next step is the most critical. Flip the rectangle over and place the long end on the mark and glue down.
When glued down this will be flat and span the fold.
That is all there is to a parallelogram. Each of those folds now become another fold to add more mechanisms to. Or can be used to create action, which is what I did.
Here is the parallelogram in place. In the small box I fold two triangles and the back folded to create "arm placements". This was done before glueing down. So the first step discussed was to just create a platform. This folding step is optional and is used to create movement.
With me so far? Just get out some scrap paper and make the model and play with the paper and folds. It truly is magical that a simple piece of paper can make other paper move.
Here I made a simple parallelogram with the fold and added arms to check movement.
I knew that I needed movement at the top and bottom which is why there are two folds in my parallelogram. On which part of the triangle the "arm" is place will determine the movement.
Ok that is all for the details of parallelograms. In the next installment we will explore another mechanism. Lets get onto the finishing of this card.
The Process of Creating:
Before I started the card I made a rough model of what I wanted.
I basically take paper and start adding. I began with a single parallelogram with fold, shown holding dragonfly (small) and arm for movement. Then I cut an opening in another piece of paper for the large dragonfly and attached a dragonfly. Open and closed a few times and decided this worked.
Onto a white paste up model
Here the measurements are being refined. Everything must fit into the card. How much movement I needed would determine the finished card. Those dimensions are marked not the backing.
Measurements are penciled in. Everything works. I need a minimum of a 5 X 6 card. So my finished card will be based on that measurement. To make it less square, I added 1/2 inch to height and so the finished card is 5 X 61/2 inches.
With all the measurements in hand I started construction. I ended up adjusting only slightly. One major adjustment was moving the folds on the parallelogram so they met at the center and eliminated the arm for the large dragonfly.
The card:
Stamped and heat embossed in black the 2 dragonflies, these were cut out with my Brother Scan n Cut. I also stamped and heat embosssed in Platinum and a sparkling powder on Vellum and fussy cut. These were glued together over the body.
The larger Dragonfly wings were colored with a coating of Wink of Stella for glimmer.
Assembly begins. Parallelogram is cut from 80# white cardstock, the rest from the designer paper.
I cut a triangle into a piece of paper and this will fold down and elevate the Large Dragonfly.
This is the back side of this mechanism with all the score tape to hod it down.
This is the mechanism. We will explore this in future blogs as it is the bases for another whole array of movement. I just created a triangle. Cut on the straight sides and folded it on the other set set of lines. This will fold flat and move the dragonfly out of the way when closed and pop up when opened..
Almost done. Both Dragonflies fly and move. Last step is the sun. I Stamped heat embossed and fussy cut it out, then colored with copics. It is attached to the upper part of the parallelogram.
This folds in towards the center and the small dragonfly moves away from the center.
Ok, lets take a few looks at all the parts finished. What you can't see in the video, but get a hint at, is the wings on both dragonflies are loose, they flutter when the card is opened. A product of thin vellum and heaving embossing.
The rest of the card!!
The front. I cut a backing sheet that would cover the card and leave enough to fold over to create a pocket for the magnets. First adhered the back part of the base card to this base.
The flap has been covered with Score tape, magnets are stuck into the score tape and then flap folded over. A ribbon place into the Channel before sealing. The other side of the magnets are attached with glue dots to the front, then the backing sheet is attached to the card base, sealing in all the magnets and finishing the front.
The sentiment was created by by stamping the work happy and then using another stamp, masked out all the words except Be, and stamped above the happy.
Don't forget to remove the masking before stamping!!
All that was left was to die cut, add a bow and some embellishments, Finished!!!
Hope you enjoyed this long post and that I have inspired you to look at making your own Interactive Cards,
See you Soon,
Happy Crafting
Josette.
Links:
Book Used: Pops Up by Duncan Birmingham. He has many videos on face book that shows the creation of these mechanisms. Just Google Duncan Birmingham. There are other great pop up engineers on You Tube as well and a quick walk through he pop up box section in your local bookstore is an immense source of inspiration. The Harry Potter Pop up is my Favorite and of course Starwars. But it is the simpler pop up books that lend themselves to us card makers.
