Tutorial: How to make a Woodland Deer Pop-Up Card.

This Woodland Deer Pop-Up Card is simple and elegant. Here are instructions for how to make the cuts and folds to create the pop-up card and decorate it.  Included is a template of the shapes I have designed for this card.

The card takes about 60 - 90 mins. Most of this time is due to the design of the animals and tree.  You could make a simpler card in 30 mins once you understand the basics and free hand draw your own designs. This is a good time to use offcuts of paper you may have lying about as you generally use only small pieces for the decoration.

The dimensions of the finished card are 14cm x 14cm (5 1/2" x 5 1/2").  If you choose to make a different size card then you may need to tweak the measurements I provide to suit your card.

Items required

Folded card with envelope - this card will be the outside over of your pop up card

White card for insert / pop up structure

Green paper for tree

Brown paper for deer

Scissors

Glue stick

Pencil

Black Pen

White Acrylic paint

Paint brush

Tracing paper (if you wish to print out and trace the design I have included below)

As an indication of size, my finished tree is about 10cm (4") wide. So on my 14cm (5 1/2") wide card I have a margin of 4cm (1 1/2") on the right of the tree.

Step 1  Trace the open shape of your cover card onto the sheet of white card. Cut out the white card. I'll refer to this as the pop-up's insert.

Step 2  Fold the insert card in half. On the fold line, from the right edge, draw a box 4cm (1 1/2") wide and 3cm (1 1/4") high.

As in the diagram above, make a cut up the left side of the box. Then fold the square up along the top line of the box, as seen in the image below.  Fold the card back to it's original position and open the card.

Step 3 With your insert card now open, pull the box towards yourself so it looks like the card above.  Now close the card back over, leaving the box pulled forward. Turn the insert card around so that once again the folded edge is closest to you and the area you have been working on is in the bottom right corner.

Step 4  Now in only the top layer you need to make a smaller version of what you have just completed. Draw a box 2cm (3/4") x 2cm (3/4") on the next fold line. Only cut the left side of the small box and then fold along the top line of the box so it appears like the picture above. 

Fold small box back to original position and open card.

Step 5   Place finger behind crease of small box and pull forward. You are now ready to add designs to your card : )

Step 6  Tree. Cut out your tree and glue it to the card as in diagram above.

Step 7  Deer. I've put them on the template sheet in reverse (facing right) so that when you trace them, you can flip the paper over and transfer straight onto the brown paper (facing left). Cut them out. As you can see below, use white acrylic paint to: add spots on back, highlight ear, eye, under chin, down neck, under chest, under tail and inside of legs.

Whilst the white paint dries you can do Step 8. Paint dry? Use your black pen to draw eye, nose and some subtle outlines and shading on each deer.

Step 8  Cut a strip of brown paper about 15cm (6") and glue it on the front of your cover card, folding the excess around each side for a neat finish. The insert card will cover the excess when its glued into place.  Your can write the appropriate salutation eg. "Happy Birthday", "Thank you", "Think of you" directly onto this strip or onto thinner, lighter strip for contrast which you can glue on top of the brown strip.

Step 9  When gluing the insert into the cover, I like to glue the bottom half into place first. Once that is aligned glue the top half into place. It's best to let the card dry closed. If you try to push the card out open and flat to dry it may not close neatly later.

Done!

Please note that the design of the deer and tree for this tutorial have been created by me (http://chantalvincentart.blogspot.com/) . All photos belong to me. I would love for you to share my tutorial but please be sure to link it back to this blog. Thanks for reading my tutorial. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments or email me.