Book Review: Pop-Up Cards by Mari Kumada

Pros: explains how to make several types of interactive cards, easy to follow step by step instructions

Cons: instructions and templates are separate, so you'll be doing a lot of page turning when making your cards

This book teaches how to make 6 types of pop-up cards, in addition to sliders, flappers, spinners and cards that spring (the pop-up piece moves into view as the card opens).  The instructions are fairly clear, but you'll want to keep them handy - at least the first time you try a new type of pop-up.  Of the four cards I recreated, three turned out wonderfully.  The fourth didn't, as I glued where I shouldn't have.  So caution is necessary, as glue in the wrong place will ruin most of these designs.

The designs themselves are attractive.  Printable colour templates for all the cards are available at the back of the book.  There's a good range of occasions covered (Birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Thank You and Wedding/Baby) and a decent number of examples for each technique taught.

My only complaints are that you have to flip through the book a lot as the basic lessons, card instructions and templates are all in different areas and that there are no ideas for the fronts of the cards, only the insides.  Also, given the difficulty of some of the techniques, some of them are easier than others to modify.  For example, using a car and garage slider card instead of the Penguin on an Ice Floe would be easy.  You're not taught enough about the mechanics behind pop-ups to create your own free hand designs though.

Final verdict: the book teaches some great techniques and has enough variety and templates to keep you busy for a while.

Cards That Spin: Dahlia

This is the last of the cards I made using the patterns from Mari Kumada's Pop-Up Cards book. There are quite a number of designs in the book that I'm not showing on my blog (like the spiral card on the book's cover).

For this card, Amazing Card 4: Cards That Spin: Dahlia, I had to print the dahlia in red on cardstock and then cut the accompanying pattern out with my silhouette. The two pieces of cardstock are attached with a black brad in the center. The card spins when you turn the red paper that's sticking out of the black cover. This looks awesome when the card's spinning.

Like the patterned pop-up I did earlier though, it's difficult to make your own spin designs, so you're 'stuck' with only the pattern from the book (which, as I said above, looks awesome).

Pop-Up Cards: Hungry Kitty

Today's Pop-Up Cards card is: Amazing Card 2: Cards that Flap: Hungry Kitty.  This is a card that required a close following of instructions.  As with the other cards, I copied the template into my silhouette and cut them out (the kitties, fish and plates).  The house and flap I hand cut.

Despite reading the instructions more than once I still managed to put one of the cat figures in the wrong place.  The point of this card is that you see the kitty on the front with the fish on the plate.  You flip the tab and there's the second (hidden) kitty with the fish bones.  You're supposed to put the kitties in particular places so that they A) are hidden by the flap and B) don't interfere with the flap.  I got A, but messed up B with the first kitty.  As a result, my flap doesn't work quite the way it's supposed to.  Still, an interesting technique.

Sliding Card: Penguin on an Ice Floe

 Note to self, don't leave so much time between making cards and taling about them, especially if they're for a book review.  I remember making this card, but I don't quite remember how the slider works anymore. :(

Again, this card is from Pop-Up Cards by Mari Kumada.  It is from the end of the book: Amazing Card 1: Cards that slide left and right: Penguin on an Ice Floe

I cut the circle tab and penguin on my silhouette, and possibly the ice floe (though I may have done that by hand).  I remember getting the penguin on the folded paper attached to the slider was challenging - not because it was hard, but because I wasn't sure if I wanted the penguin high on the tab or low.  I believe I did that twice as I wasn't keen on the first placement.

I seem to remember that the penguin is on a black folded tab, attached to the pull paper.  The pull tab is just folded paper with a circle on one end.  The slit in the ice floe was cut with a craft knife.

Anyway, here's the card.  Unlike the ballerina from yesterday, this is a technique you'd be able to apply to numerous designs (a mouse up a clock, a cat chasing something, a rocket ship blasting off, a train moving).

In the picture above, the penguin is at rest.  In the bottom picture it's actively chasing the fish that's on the pull tab.  The tab is also a great place for a sentiment (and I believe the example card in the book has one there).

This is a great card style for slightly older kids (ones who can use the pull tab without ripping the card).

Book Review: Pop-Up Cards by Mari Kumada: Ballerina Dancing Onstage

I made these cards several months ago when I got Pop-Up Cards as a review book from NetGalley.  While I wrote down my end review at that time, I didn't write down how each card went, so I'm doing that from memory.

Though the book teaches several techniques for doing pop-ups I only tried 4 of the cards.  Unlike with the other book review I did, with this book I copied the cards exactly, so you'll only see my cards rather than the lesson card and how I modified it.  Given the nature of pop-ups some of the lessons are easier to modify than others.  Today's ballerina card, for example, is unalterable unless you get another book that goes into more specifics on how to design your own pop-ups.  The book includes the instructions to make this card, and the templates you need in order to cut out the curtain and ballerina, but not the instructions to design your own form cut pop-up cards.

This card is from the first lesson, Horizontal-fold Cards with 90 degree Pop-ups: Ballerina Dancing Onstage.

I traced the ballerina template into my Silhouette and cut it out that way.  For the pop-up curtain I placed the template on my paper and cut it out using a craft knife.  Be very careful with the folds, as I accidentally folded the bottom of the curtain where it was supposed to remain flat (the area on the center crease line).

 I used a punch on the end to make the edging prettier and gussied up the dancer with some clear glitter glue.

My main complain with this book is that there are no ideas for the fronts of cards, so this pop-up card is still unfinished.

Supplies:
Cardstock: black - Recollections, pink - light stash paper (dollar store), specialty burgundy? - stash (dollar store)
Punch: Martha Stewart Edge Punch Quilted
glitter glue