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Now that we have all of our pieces, we’re going to assemble the bird card. We’ve got the wing, we have our wheel, and we also have the bird with the V-fold in the middle. And here are our tabs, and I was even able to add another tab that’s part of the tail, just to make sure that he stays on the bees page really well. Next with some double stick tape, I’m going to stick the bird onto the bees page. And if you find that your double stick tape is a little wide, you can always trim it off once you’ve stuck it on, so you can trim it right down to the size that you need. Just be careful and not to cut the pop-up. Next, we’re going to line him up on the center line, push that down so that the tabs stick to the base page, and one last piece of double stick right on the tail.

So we have our first piece already put together. Now we’re going to double stick the round piece onto the V-fold to make the rotator. We’re going to stick it on this side of the V-fold, and make sure that the tape or glue stays only within the V-fold, anything outside is going to make the rotator stick and it won’t work. So now we’re going to line up the center point of the circle to the center point of the V-fold, and we’re going to line up that cut line along the center line of the base page and of the bird piece. And so now we have a rotator. Well, we’re going to end up covering the rotator with a wing, that way we hide the mechanism. So we’re going to put double stick tape right here on this side of the rotator, don’t go past the fold line onto that side, it’s going to make the rotator stick, and then the wing won’t rotate. I’m going to take the wing, line them up onto the rotator, press down to make sure it gets stuck on there real nicely. If you need to, you may need to help that first close of the pop-up. And that’s how we make a pop-up bird.

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And, I’m going to teach you, now, how to make V-folds in layers on top of one another.

So, we’re going to take a piece of cardstock. Fold it in half for a base page. Match the edges as close as possible and crease it down the middle. Unfold it and set it aside.

Now we’re going to take another piece of cardstock and we’re going to cut off the corner so we have a great, 90 degree V-fold.

Now we’re going to fold it down the center and we’re going to match this edge with the other edge. And, match it as closely as possible. With popups the more precision, the better.

And, I’m going to trim the top of my V-fold so that it’s equal on both sides. Now we have a V-fold.

So, I’m going to tape this guy down onto my base page. So, take the V-fold, line up the center lines, and tape down the edges. Now we have our V-fold.

Next, we’re going to take another piece of cardstock. And we’re going to cut out a small rectangle. And we’re also going to fold this one down the center.

This one doesn’t quite match on the edges, so I’m going to trim it so that the edges do match. Now we’ve got our layer.

So, take your base page with the V-fold and we’re going to line up the center line of the layer with the edge of the V-fold. And that’s how we make a layer on top of a V-fold.

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Now I’m going to teach you how to make a Papa bird.

First, take a piece of card stock; I’ve cut mine in half to create a base page. We’re also going to fold it in half.

Match your edges and your corners; crease it down the edge; unfold it and set it aside.

For the bird, we’re going to create a V-fold with another V-fold on it and that’s going to end up becoming a rotor.

What we’re going to do is cut out a large rectangle. Match the sides. Fold it down the middle and unfold it.

We’re going to make a little round archway and we’re going to cut that out. These are going to become the tabs for the bird.

And now we’re going to fold that tab up like so, to create a V-fold. And we’re going to match the back side as well. So they should be the same angle. Now we’ve created a V-fold.

Here, you can draw the head of the bird; kind of bring that down into the tab, and you’ve got the tail back there.

So I’m going to cut out the shape and make sure that you still keep a couple of tabs.

Now you’re going to fold it back together. You’re going to fold the top of the middle forward at a 45 degree angle. Unfold it and, with your thumb, hold back that V-fold as we close the piece.

Now you’ve created a big V-fold with a smaller V-fold. Now you’re going to cut a circle, roughly an inch and a half wide. We’re also going to cut right down the middle, just one incision.

We’re going to fold it back at about four o’clock. If this is the face of the clock, you’re going to have noon, one, two, three, four, and five; you’re going to fold it in between four and five. Set that aside as well.

Next you’re going to cut out a wing. So those are your three pieces.

Now that we have our pieces, next we are going to put it together.

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I’m now going to show you how to make a pop-up wreath. Take a piece of
card stock. I’ve cut mine in half to create a base page. We’re also now
going to fold it in half to match the edges in the corners and crease it
really well. Unfold it, and set it to the side. Next we’re going to take
another sheet of card stock. We’re going to fold that in half as well,
and we’re going to cut a circle out of it. We want to make sure that the
circle is within the base page.

You don’t want it any bigger. Mine looks good, and I’m going to set that
aside again. To create a pop-up wreath, you’re going to need a center as
well. Draw half of a circle and cut that out, and you’ve created the
wreath. If you would like, you can cut geometric patterns, you can keep
it round. It’s entirely up to you. I already have a piece from a
template where I’ve cut out the center, and I’ve also cut out the edges.

Now what we are going to do is make a layer out of this wreath. We are
pull one side and fold it, and fold it in half so that we can match the
other side. It’s going to be an equal layer. That’s the layer. Fold it
in half again, and we’re going to create a V-fold. Fold it forward, fold
it back, unfold it, and you’re going to push that V back. Now you have a
layer with a V-fold. For mine, I have a little bow detail to glue on.
I’m going to take my glue, and in just a little bit, I’m going to glue
the bow on.

For this template, I get to line up the ends of the bow, and line up the
edge with the center line. Same thing for the other side, with just a
little bit of glue. Line that up, push down and make sure that that’s
dry, and now we’re ready to put it in the base page. Take the base page,
and what we are going to do is double stick, or glue, the sides down.
Flip it over, put your double stick tape on the tab. Do the same on the
other side. Now you are going to line up the center lines of the wreath
and the base page.

Push those down, close it, and there is a pop-up wreath. That’s how you
make a pop-up wreath.

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Now I am going to show you how to make a pop-up city out of layers. Take
a piece of cardstock and fold it in half. What we are going to end up
doing is cut the layers of the city out of the base page. Keep it
folded, and we are going to cut a wide layer. Make sure that they are
equal. While it is closed, fold it, fold it back, unfold the base page,
and push the building forward for the layer. Now from here, we are going
to cut another layer right there, and we will cut another one out of
there.

When you close it, make sure that you can cut on either side of that
layer. You’re not cutting it together. Make sure that they are even. Be
careful not to cut all the way through to the edge of this first layer.
Now we are going to make another one down here in the front, and I made
a very little incision because I would like this one to be an unequal
layer. I’m going to pop that layer forward, and before I fold it, I’m
going to cut a little higher on this top part.

When we close it, it’s going to find where it wants to fold
automatically. Just help it along by pushing it forward and crease it.
Even though it’s folding in the middle, that’s OK, because we are going
to put a building right on top. I’m going to cut out another building.
I’m going to make this one a little taller. Fold it forward, unfold, and
pop that out. Actually, I’m going to put another layer in here, but it’s
going to come in. This one comes out like the other ones, but this layer
will pop in, like that, so that we have some more buildings.

Now that we have some layers, I’m going to double stick some buildings.
I’ve already pre-cut some rectangles out. You can use whatever shapes
you would like. My guy sticks out, so we are going to trim him down.
There’s one building. I’m going to double stick another one on here. He
sticks out too. What I’m going to do is just trim it down. Our city is
beginning to form. That is how you make a pop-up city out of layers.

Transcript

I am now going to show you how to make a pop-up kitten. Take a piece of
card stock and fold it half. Match the edges in the corner and crease it.
Unfold it and set it to the side. Now take another piece of card stock.
We’re going to match the corners again, and the edges. Crease it, and
then we’re going to make a really wide V-fold. Here is our wide V-fold,
and let’s just double check that it’s going to fit in the page.

Line up the center of the base page, so we’re going to make sure that
this fits inside the pop-up. We are going to tape it lightly to the base
page after lining up the center lines. We are really close, and we are
going to end up adding ears, so I’m going to trim just a little bit. I’m
actually going to take this off because I am going to make a tented
V-fold so that the head has a little bit of dimension. To make a tented
V-fold, we are going to make an incision at the top at an angle like
that, right to the center line of the piece.

Now what we are going to do is put double stick tape on what we have now
created as a tab. We are going to pull this side right to that fold
line. You can see that it has created a tent. Now as we fold it, match
the bottom edges together, and crease the top of the piece. Because we
have made a tented V-fold, it’s going to create a new fold line right
down the middle. We are going to trim that right there, and now we have
created the kitty head. What we need to add now are his ears.

I’m going to take card stock, and I’m going to cut two triangles out and
set them aside. I’m going to tape the V-fold into the base page now.
This is a tented V-fold, so it is not going to lay flat, so you make
take you one or two tries to make sure that it is lined up, but do the
best that you can. Take the center line of your V-fold, and line that up
with the base page. Tape them down on one edge, then fold it over, then
take another piece of tape and we are going to stick that on the outside
and roll it back to the edge so that the sticky side is revealed.

Push that down and make sure that it’s secure. We have the head of the
kitten and now we have to add his ears. Take a little bit of double
stick, and take one of the triangle pieces. Put that right there, and so
there’s one ear. We are going to double stick the other one, and we are
going to try and match it up with the other side, more or less. That
way, they are about the same width apart. You can draw eyes and whiskers
on, and that’s how you make a pop-up kitten.

Transcript

Complex pop-ups really are inspired by what kind of movement you’re looking for. If you want someone’s arm to come out, how are you gonna make that happen? If you want a spaceship to go across the page it’s usually a matter of movement or anatomy. Instead of just having a whole body pop-up, how do I articulate that body? A lot of complexity comes out of that.

Really inspiration comes from the movement and how slowly or how fast you want things to open. Everything’s built off of basic principles in pop-ups. The v-fold, the layer, pull tabs and then rotators and variations of that. Sometimes a little bit of magic as well.

In our studio we’ve created one of our tallest pop-ups before and that’s in the Jungle Book. It’s a monkey tower and it opens and it opens and it opens totally like this giant tower with monkey’s crawling all over it. It’s basically layers and v-folds, but it’s how you connect them and how you put them together. That’s how these complex pop-ups come together.

Transcript

So for those of you who are just starting out with pop-ups, don’t get discouraged. It can be easy to be discouraged, but try something easy first. Try a v-fold. Once you get the v-fold, try a layer. And once you get that, start building from there. And then you’ll find that once things become easier you’ll be able to start pushing those boundaries.

Once you get to a certain point you might start looking at pop-up books and you’re like, how did they make that? How did they make that house? How did they make this castle or this horse? I would suggest get two copies of the book. Have one to look at and have a second one to take apart very carefully.

Sometimes it’s much easier to see how things work if you’re able to take it apart and see the actual mechanics behind it. Because a lot of times with our pop-up books, we tend to cover the mechanics so it’s very magical. You won’t be able to really see what’s going on. You’re just like, oh, my gosh, this pops up.

So if you start to take it apart and really figure it out, that might help as well, and you can make it. If I can make a pop-up, you can make a pop-up.

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So if you’re looking for pop-up templates and things that you can download and print at home, there are a couple of websites. One I would recommend is matthewreinhart.com. We have some really great do it yourself pop-ups and there’s step-by-step tutorials. Another one is robertsabuda.com. He also has really wonderful templates that you can download and print at home. You can find kits where you can make a 3-D sculpture that has a paper crank and actually moves. Those are pretty amazing as well. Other than that, that’s about it for pop-ups.

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Hi. My name is Jess Tice-Gilbert and I’m a paper engineer. I work with Matthew Reinhart in Manhattan and I also teach at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. I literally fell into pop-ups by accident. I took a class in college and fell in love with it. I’ve been making pop-ups ever since.

There is a little bit of math involved, which I love. I’m a little bit of a geometry nerd, not gonna lie. You also need to problem solve at the same time. And the wonder and the surprise that comes from pop-ups. Like, you can have the smallest card and once you open it, you get this surprise, this thing that just pops out at you. And I also really love that it brings a lot of people joy, like, seeing people’s faces light up after opening a pop-up card or a pop-up book and them just being like, wow, that’s awesome. That is another reason why I love pop-ups.

A lot of people will think, oh, I can’t make pop-ups. It’s too hands on. It’s too complicated. But I’m able to show them step by step that they can. Making pop-ups is my passion and I want to share it with you. I make pop-ups. End of story.

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For making popups you’re gonna need a couple things. You’re gonna need card stock. It is heavier than copier paper. Copier paper’s really not gonna pop up. It’s not gonna really do anything for you. You need card stock roughly 110 pounds.

Next, you need a ruler or a triangle. The great thing about a triangle’s that it has a 90 degree angle already built in. Next you’ll need is a pair of sharp scissors and you’ll need some glue. White glue works just fine. Also you’re gonna see me using a lot of tape.

I like to use artists tape. It’s a little less stickier than drafting tape. That way, if you make a mistake, you need to reposition [SP] a popup you can do it. Also the next thing is double-sided tape. This is really awesome for sticking other pieces on top of v-folds and on top of layers.

Next, I like to use a knitting needle to make score lines. Score lines are actually the full blinds on popups. This will really make great and precise folds. If you’re really skilled and feel really comfortable you can use an (?).

This little guy is a burnisher and also has a little end very much like the knitting needle so we can score and make the full blinds for the popups. Those are the tools of the trade.

Transcript

Today, we’re going to learn about V-folds, which is one of the basic principles of pop-ups. So, you’re going to take a piece of card stock for your base page. Then we’re going to fold it in half. You’re going to crease it really well. Match the edges as well you can. Unfold it and set it to the side.

Next, you’re going to take another piece of card stock. What we’re going do is, we want to make a 90 degree V-fold. So, take a pair of scissors, and you’re going to cut a giant piece off the corner. And since you’re piece of paper is already square, you already have 90 degrees. So, now what we’re going to do is we’re going to match this corner to this edge and fold it and crease. You can cut a little off the top to match the top edges. Unfold it, and now you have the beginning of a V-fold.

So next, we’re going to take our base page and a piece of artist tape. Actually, we’ll take two. And now you’re going to take the V-fold and place it on your base page, and you’re going to line up the center of the V-fold with the center of the base page. And you can push it to the top of the base page so that these corners don’t go past the base page, but they are close. That way you have a really great pop promotion.

Now, what I’m going to do is I’m going to put tape behind the V-fold and roll it under. Press down. Shave one side and you’re going to do the same on the other side. Roll that under. Close it and crease it if need be so it lays flat. And you have a V-fold.

You can also make not only a 90 degree V-folds, you can also make them smaller so then this angle is much smaller than the 90 degrees. So, we’re going to put this guy on and you can also use the tape on the outside of the pop-up. You can fold it under or you can use it on the outside, it’s completely up to you. So, there’s 90 degree or there’s an acute angle. And we can also make the angles much wider so this angle is wider than 90 degrees. And we’ll tape this one down as well.

Okay. And so, we have 90 degree, acute, and obtuse V-folds.

Transcript

I’m going to teach you now about V folds on top of V folds.

So take a piece of card stock, fold it in half for your base page, match the corners and edges as well as you can and crease it. And unfold it.

Next we’re going to take a 90 degree V fold, and we’re going to place it on the base page, lining up the center line with the center line of the base page. And we’re going to tape that down on both sides. Great, so now we have our 90 degree V fold.

Next, we’re going to take another 90 degree V fold and we’re going to place it on the side of the first V fold. So when we do that we’re going to line up the center line of the little guy along the edge of the first V fold. And we’ll tape that down on both sides.

And so now we have a little V fold on top of a big one. And we’ll add one more to the other side. Same thing line up the center line with the edge of the big V fold and tape it down, and there you have it. You have V folds on top of V folds.

And that is V folds on top of V folds.

Transcript

Alright so now I’m going to teach you how to make layers. This is also another basic principal in pop-ups. Take a piece of card stock and fold it in half to make your base page. Line up the edges and corners as neatly as possible and as close as you can. Increase the edge, and so there is your base page. So set that aside and next take another sheet of card stock. What we’re going to do is we’re going to cut a rectangle out of it, and if you want you can mark with a pencil the edges. So if you want you just talk half of a corner and we’ll mark here, mark there. So that way you make a nice, neat rectangle. So we’ll cut that and then we’ll cut the top part. So we have a rectangle for the layer. So now what we’re going to do is you’re going to fold that in half. Have the edges neat, crease it, and then there’s a layer. So now we’re going to take our base page again, take the layer piece, line up the center lines, and now what we’re going to do is we’re going tape on either edge of the layer. Close it and there’s your layer. And this is how you make layers.

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So now we’re going to learn how to make unequal layers, which is building off of the layer video from previous. So this is a layer. So an unequal layer is going to have one side that’s longer than the other side.

Take a piece of card stock and measure out a long rectangle. And now what we’re going to do is we’re going to cut it out. So now we’ve got a rectangle that’s going to become an unequal layer. Instead of folding it all the way to the edge, we’re actually going to fold it towards the middle. So take one edge, fold it towards the middle and crease the side.

So now we have an unequal layer. Take your base page. We will not be lining it up along the center line. What we’re going to do is you’re going to take a pencil and you are going to mark the shorter edge. So line up the edge of the layer, and then mark where that fold line is. And then what we’ll do is we’re going to line up the long edge next to that mark. Tape it down, and then tape the other side down.

And that is how you make an unequal layer.

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We are going to learn about layers on top of layers. We’re going to take a piece of cardstock and we’re going to mark a smaller rectangle to cut out. Take your scissors and cut out your smaller rectangle. So now we’ve got a rectangle that’s going to be a layer on top of these layers. I’m going to fold this one in half to make an equal layer. Take your base page with the layers already on it. What we’re going to do since it’s an equal layer, we’re going to line up the central line with the edge of the layer and tape it down. You can make unequal layers on top of unequal layers and vice versa. It all depends on the movement and what you’re trying to build. Tape it down, close it and open it. So now we’ve got layers on top of layers. So this is layers on top of layers.

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Now we’re going to show you how to put V-folds on top of layers. Now we’re going to take another piece of card stock and cut out slightly a slightly big rectangle to make our layer. I’m going to fold it down the center, crease it, and trim the edges if they don’t quite line up, Now we have our layer and before we tape it in i’m actually going to show you to put a V-fold on this without actually adding a piece. We’re just going to fold the top corner down, crease it, and we’re going to pop it back and fold it.

Now we have a V-fold with a new layer. Now we’re going to take this guy back in here so line up the center lines because it’s an equal layer, tape the sides down, and that is a layer with a V-fold. Now we can also add another 90 degree V-fold on the side so crease your V-fold down the center and take your pop up again. We’re going to line up the center line of the V-fold with the edge of the layer. We’re going to tape them down and now you have layers and V-folds together. That’s how you make V-folds on top of layers.

Transcript

And, now I’m going to teach you how to make a rotator. Take your piece of card stock and make a base page. Fold it in half. Match the edges. Crease down the middle and set it aside.

Now we’re going to take another sheet of card stock and cut out a large rectangle. Fold it down the middle. Match the edges as close as possible. And trim them if they’re a little uneven.

So, now we have a layer. And for a rotator, we need a V-fold at the top. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to fold it back again down the center. And we’re going to fold the top at an angle. Preferably 45 degrees. Crease it down. Unfold it.

Now we’ve got a V-fold within the layer. And to fold it back you’re going to take your thumb and you’re going to push that V-fold back as you fold the layer. And, crease it down well. And that’s the first step of a rotator.

Now we’re going to take the base page. We’re going to line up the center lines. We’re going to tape down the edges. And now we’ve got our V-fold and layer.

And, now what we’re going to do, we’re actually going to cut a circle out of cardstock. Make them roughly an inch and a half.

So, now what we’re going to do is, we’re going to make a cut in the center to the top. And then, what we’re going to do is we’re going to make a fold, roughly at about four o’clock. If you imagine the circle as the clock face, we’ve got noon, three, four and five. So, we’re going to make a fold in between four and five.

So, let’s cut the top half to the center. We’re going to fold this back. And there we have the second piece of our rotator.

So, take your base page with the V fold and layer. And, we’re going to take a bit of double stick tape. And, we’re going to take the double stick tape and put it on one half of the V-fold. Make sure it stays within the v.

Now we’re going to take our circular piece. So, the smaller tab that we just folded, we’re going line up the edge and the center with the center point and edge of the v on the layer.

So, let’s line that up. Push it down and close it. And now you have a rotator.

Mine sticks out a little bit. So, if it does, you can just untape it. You can just trim down the edges, really quickly. That way your popups stay within the base page. And your viewer gets the full element of surprise. That’s all pop ups are. You’re surprising people with movement, with something that literally jumps off the page. So, there’s your rotator. And that’s how we make rotators.

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Now, I’m going to teach you how to make a V-fold lifter. So, take a piece of card stock for a base page. We’re going to fold it in half. And match your edges and corners as closely as possible. Crease the edge, unfold it and set your base page to the side.

Next, we’re going take a piece of card stock. And what we’re going to do is, before we cut anything, we’re going to fold the edge towards the middle and crease it. And now, what you’re going to do is you’re going to take your scissors and you’re going to cut at an angle, from the fold, out. And that’s the bottom part of your first V-fold.

Then, you’re going to do it again at about the same angle. And you’re going to cut about an inch, inch and a half tall, to the edge. Unfold it and that is your first V-fold of the V-fold lifter. And you want two identical V-folds. So, you’re going to take that first V-fold and line it up with the folded card stock. This way, you have identical V-folds. And now, we’re going to cut one at the top of that first V-fold. Set the excess aside and so now, we have one V-fold and two V-folds. Take your base page. What we’re going to do is we’re going to tape the first V-fold down. We’re going to line up the center lines and tape down your V-fold.

So, there’s one. And now, we’re going to take the second one, also line it up along the center line. You can have your V-fold close. You can have it further away. It’s all up to you and what you’re making. So, line up the center lines and take a couple pieces of tape. Tape the edges down of your second V-fold.

And so now, we have two V-folds that are identical and moving at the same speed, which is what for a V-fold lifter. We’re going to set this aside and now, what we’re going to do is we’re going to take a piece of card stock, fold it in half and you can make whatever shape you’d like. For right now, I’m just going to make a square.

So, now, we have our third piece. And this is actually going to go on top of the identical V-folds. So, what you’re going to do is you’re going to take some more tape and you’re going to add it underneath the V-fold, so that that sticky side is up. I’ve added two pieces on that back V-fold and now, we’re going to add two more to the front V-fold.

This tape is going to secure that rectangle that I just cut out. So, now, we’re going to take the rectangle and we’re going to line up the center line with the center line of the base page and the V’s. And to make sure that it’s all lined up, we can fold it in half. And line it up right along the center. Unfold that, make sure the tape is stuck to it. Close it and open it and there is your V-fold lifter. And if you need to, you can trim away the V’s underneath so that it really looks like the rectangle is floating up towards you.

And that’s how we make a V-fold lifter.

Transcript

Woman: I’m going to teach you now how to make a box. Take a piece of card stock for your base page and fold it in half. Match up the edges in the corners as closely as possible and crease the edge down and set it aside.

To make a box, you’re going to need a long strip, or a long rectangle of card stock, and we’re going to make a box roughly two inches high so mark out two inches. We’re going to cut this entire length. Make it as straight as possible. If you feel comfortable, you can take a ruler and an exacto blade and cut it out. Or you can take scissors. It doesn’t matter. It’s completely up to you.

So now that we have our long rectangle strip to make a box, we’re going to fold it in half, match the edges as close as possible, and crease the middle.

Before we unfold it, we’re going to do that again. We’re going to fold the middle to the edge. Line up your edges again as closely as possible and crease it. And unfold.

Now we have four equal sides for our box. And what we’re going to do is refold them inwards so that we can create a box shape. On the open ends, we’re going to put tape on the inside. So take a piece of tape, put the sticky side up, and match the edges. And now we have a box.

To attach it to the base page, we’re going to close the box. Line up the corner. Here’s a fold line. Line up that corner with the center line of the base page. And line up the bottom edge of the house, roughly 45 degree angle. You can make it smaller. You can make it a little wider. 45 degrees is a nice round area for the house.

So now that we’ve taped that side down, we can actually lift up the house and move it over so we can tape down the other side. And take a piece of tape, tape it down on the top edge of your box and fold the sticky side back to reveal the back side of the tape. Now what we’re going to do is close the base page onto that sticky piece of tape, and unfold it. And now you have your box.

And that’s how we make a box.

Transcript

I’m now going to show you how to make pull tabs. Take a piece of card stock; I’ve cut mine in half and we’re going to fold it in half for the base page. Match the edges and the corners together and crease it really well.

Now for a pull tab it actually goes underneath the base page; so we’re not going to open it up like a pop up. The mechanics are actually going to go inside here and this is the backing piece to cover it.

What we’re going to do is we’re going to mark a slot on the base page about an inch and a half wide and an eighth of an inch tall. Our pull tab is going to come through there. Take the Exacto blade and very carefully cut out a slot. Take another piece of card stock. Make sure it is just under the height of your base page. This one is a little tall so I’m going to trim it down in a minute but we also want to make sure this piece is a little smaller than the slot we’ve just created. What I’m going to do is underneath the slot I’m going to put the second piece of card stock underneath, line it up so you can just barely see the edge of this piece. I’m going to mark where the slot is so I have a good idea as to how wide the pull tab is going to be. I’m going to make it a little smaller than what we just marked.

Take a pair of scissors and cut right on that mark all the way to the top. Mine was a little too tall so I’m just going to knock off about a quarter inch. Now we have what’s going to end up being the pull tab. If we slip it underneath we can see that’s going to be the pull tab; that’s going to pull down and it’s going to push back up.

For this one I’m actually going to make a little mouth, very much like a little puppet. I’m going to cut out a rectangle and I’m going to close it up again. I’m going to mark on the back of the base page where that square is. We’re just going to fill that in, outside of the lines, with a pencil or a marker or a darker shade of paper. You can now see the opening. When I put my pull tab in there you can see that it covers it. It opens and closes, opens and closes. But it’s wobbly right now so when you have pull tabs you’re going to have to anchor it down. Next I’m going to show you how to secure the pull tab to the back of the card.

Transcript

And now, I’m going to show you how to secure the pull tab.

So, you’re going to open up the base page and you can see that the pull tab is all over the place. And that’s not what we want. We want a very smooth channel.

So, I’m going to flip it over and I’m going to see where it starts to open and reveal the back. So, right about there, right when it closes, I’m going to mark the pull tab. You can erase these lines later.

And now, I’m going to open it all the way and mark that as well. And, ever so carefully, try not to move the pull tab. You want it to stay in that open position.

So, you can see that the pull tab is now just below that opening. And that’s what we want.

So next, you’re going to take a small strip of cardstock that is wider than the slot and is wider than this piece. And we’re going to double stick that on.

This is going to end up being, like, the brakes for your pull tab. It’s going to stop it from pulling all the way out of the base page. So now, you can see that it can’t come down anymore.

But, it has no where to stop when it goes all the way off. So, what we’re going to end up doing now is we’re going to push it back up to the closed position. Gently open it. And we’re going to end up making another piece that’s going to keep this pull tab in its position.

I’m going to cut out another strip of cardstock. And it’s wider than the pull tab. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to fold this under. And we’re going to fold the other side under so it wraps around the pull tab comfortably so it slips, in and out.

So, now what we’re going to do is we’re going to double stick the backside of the band that we’ve just created. And slip that on to the pull tab. And that’s going to end up butting right up against the piece we just put on, the little brake.

[So now you’re going] to make sure the double stick stays on. And now, you can see that our pull tab stays within the areas that we want it to. And it’s not wiggling about everywhere.

So, now you can close it. And now it’s in the closed position. And, if you’d like, you can just trim off a little bit of that pull tab. And now, you can see, that we’re revealing the back of the base page.

And so, here’s an example of a pull tab in a card that I’ve made. You can see this little guy’s mouth opens up so you can say, “Thank you.” You can say, “I love you.” You can say anything you’d like.

Transcript

Now I’m going to show you how to make a basic popup face. So take a piece of card stock, fold it in half. Match the edges and the corners as closely as possible. Crease the middle of the base page and unfold it. So now we have our base page. Fold it back and what we’re going to do is we’re going to cut a line in the center about halfway down.

Before we unfold it, we’re going to fold back one piece about a 45-degree angle. This is going to create a V fold. We’re going to do the same to this side. So fold it about 45 degrees, increase it and now we’re going to unfold that and unfold the base page. As you can see I’ve created one big V fold and another big V fold.

So what we’re going to do is we’re going to push these V folds back. To do that you take your thumb, push the V fold back as we fold the card. The same goes for this one. We’re going to push this top one back as we fold the card shut. So this is the outside, and now on the inside we have two V folds.

This is starting to look like a mouse. It could be a bird. It could be a frog. It could even be a monster. But now we’re going to need eyes, so what we’re going to do is we’re actually going to cut two layers on either side of this V fold. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to close it again, take a pencil and mark one line and another line about the same height and about the same angle.

Be careful not to cut through the center of it, but we are going to cut on the edge of the fold. There [??] cut through both sides of it closed. So here’s one line, and here’s the second line. Now, you can see that we have two layers. So fold one back and flip it over and we’re going to fold the other one back as well, and unfold it, and unfold the popup.

So now you can see that we’ve created two layers on this V fold. To create the eyes, just pop that layer forward and help it up as you shut the popup. Increase it so that it’ll stay open and we’re going to do the same on the other side. So pop the layer from the V fold up and we’re going to close this, and crease it well. So now we’ve created a face.

But because we’ve cut it out of the base page, it’s a little wobbly. So to stabilize it, we’re actually going to take another sheet of card stock and we’re going to fold that in half to create a backing. Match the edges in the corners and fold it down the middle, and unfold it. So now take the face and we’re going to line up the center and the edges with our backing piece.

So what I’m going to do is I’m going to take a little bit of glue. I’m going to put glue right around the popup. A little bit of glue will go a long way. If you put too much and then you squish the popup down, you’re going to get a lot of glue coming out of the popup and it’s going to create a bit of a mess.

We’ve got that glued down. Keeping it center and lined up with the edges, we’re going to glue the popup to our backing piece and smooth out the glued. We’re going to do the same on this side. So fold it down so that it’s closed. Take your glue and glue around the edges and glue it on the inside.

Make sure that’s all lined up and what we’re going to do is again we’re just going to press that down and make sure the glue sticks. Close it and open it, and now you’ve got a basic popup face. That’s how we make a basic popup face. Now you can draw all over it. You can add eyes. You can add a tongue inside of his mouth. You can add hair. It’s all up to you. Use your imagination.

Transcript

And now I’m going to teach you how to make a pop-up rainbow. I’ve taken half of a piece of card stock, and we’re going to fold it in half. Match up your edges as close as possible, and crease the middle. And set it aside. You’re going to take another sheet of card stock, we’re going to fold it in half, and we’re going to cut out a really wide V-fold. And so we’re going to take a pencil, fold it back in half, and we’re going to draw the arch half of it on the V. You can also add a couple of clouds at the bottom if you’d like. So while you keep it in half, fold it in half, just cut along the pencil. And now you have your rainbow arch with a couple of clouds at the bottom.

So that’s how you cut out a rainbow from scratch, you can also use a template, like this one I’ve printed out. This also has tabs at the bottom of the piece. You can also create tabs yourself, you just have to make sure that the angle here and here at the tab are the same. Just like the V-fold that we made to create the first piece. And we’re going to take a base page, you’re going to put a little bit of double-stick tape on the underneath side of the tab. And a little bit on the other one. And so now you’re going to line up the center line of the base page with the center line of the rainbow. And that way your tabs are on equal sides of the base page. Crease it down and fold it, and there you have a pop-up rainbow.

And that’s how we make a rainbow pop-up. Feel free to color it in and add little bits of scenery to it, maybe even a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.