How to Make a Pop-Up Book Step by Step for Valentine's Day

Handmade cards and gifts deliver those special messages best of all.

Recycle a child's cardboard toddler book by making it into a Valentine gift book. The sturdy pages make an ideal background for your pop-ups, and most books have few enough pages for a simple message or story. Recover the pages with craft paper, then add in attractive pop-ups to deliver your Valentine message. Personalize your pop-ups with anecdotes, photographs or memorabilia. Use your art skills to create a unique gift for your particular Valentine this year.

Things You'll Need

• Notebook paper or computer
• Pencil
• Cork backed metal ruler
• Scissors
• Craft knife set
• Paper Punch
• Scoring tool
• Cardboard toddler book
• Colored art papers
• White art paper
• Red art paper
• Pink art paper
• Decorative art tape
• Photographs
• Flat souvenirs
• Flat curling ribbon
• Stamp and stamp pad
• Stickers
• Archive quality glue

Instructions

1. Write out the words for your Valentine book. These might be a set of verses you have composed, or favorite poems you have shared. You might compose a special story or joke, or recount a memory of a special shared event in your lives.

2. Select a child's cardboard toddler book. These can be found at bookstores, at yard sales or secondhand stores or in your own store of outgrown toys. Be careful not to select a book that has special meaning for your child. Look for books that have a basic shape, such as a square or rectangle, or a shape that can be easily adapted to your Valentine message. Count the number of pages in the book to see if it is a good fit for your story, or adapt your story to the book.

3. Visit your local craft or department store. Select papers that will enhance your message from their scrapbook selection. You will want paper to cover the outside of the book, and to cover each of the pages. If the edges of the toddler book are worn, you may want some pretty tape to cover the edges of each page. To make the pop-ups, you will want crisp paper that will take a good fold and stand up to a certain amount of wear. Light card stock is good for large fold-outs; origami paper is good for smaller folds.

4. Glue the pretty paper on the outside of the book and on the inside pages. You may want to do this two pages at a time, letting the glue dry between times to prevent sticking the pages together. While the glue is drying, plan the pop-ups you want to use for each page.

5. Make pictures pop up by using a simple, single sheet pop-up. Fold a half-sheet of your pop-up paper in half. Divide the length of the fold into thirds, and mark the division points. Draw a vertical line from the fold across the paper. Make this line two-thirds of the height of the photo.

6. Use scissor or a craft knife to cut along the vertical lines. Open the paper up, and gently pull the center strip you have cut out into a mountain fold. A mountain fold is one that makes a stand-up peak. Make valley folds at each end of the cuts. Valley folds create a trough in the paper.

7. Close the paper. Lay the paper on the table, with the original center fold pointing to you, and the open edge of the paper pointing to the right, as if it were a book. Open the paper so that the left-hand half is vertical, and the mountain fold you just made should pop up as if it were a little chair.

8. Glue a photograph or cutout to the front bottom of the chair. The photo or cut-out should be no taller than the width of the book pages. When closed, the picture will lie flat against the right-hand page of the book; when opened, it will stand vertically to display against a background on the left-hand page.

9. Close the half-sheet pop-up you just created. Glue it onto two of the pages in the cardboard book. Position the original main fold so that it fits into the page gutter --- the junction of the two pages. Glue the back of the half-sheet to the pages. Decorate the pages with words, stickers, stamps or small memorabilia that go with the photo.

10. Make a fold-up heart for one or more of your pages. Fold a red or pink sheet of paper in half. Place the book on the paper, with the spine on the fold. Draw a line around the outside of the book, and remove the book.

11. Draw half of a stylized Valentine heart on the fold of the paper. The top valley of the heart should begin on the fold in the upper third of the box created when you drew a line around the book. The top of the heart should touch the top of the box, the right edge the right edge of the box, and finally your line should end with the point of the heart back on the fold of the paper.

12. Cut out the heart. With the mountain fold side face up in front of you, fold up the bottom point of the heart to meet the central valley. Crease the fold firmly. Open the heart, and turn it over. Put glue on the bottom edge of the heart, and glue it onto two pages of the book with the center crease corresponding to the book gutter and the horizontal fold just below the top of the page. When the book is closed, the heart will fold inside the book, when it is opened it will pop up above the top of the book.

13. Use variations of these two basic pop-ups to create various effects in your book. Add stickers, stamps, photographs, curls of ribbon and other decorations. Most importantly, carefully hand-letter your message or print it out in a pretty script and add blocks of print to the pages.

Tips & Warnings

• There are many more pop-up effects that can be made. The two effects described here are the most basic and are the easiest for beginners.

• You can make your own book or purchase a blank book instead of recycling a board book.

References

• Pop-up Paper Structures; Heidi Pridemore; 2007
• The Pop-up Book; Paul Jackson; 1993