How to Make Handmade Pop Up Christmas Cards Online
Send friends and family on your Christmas card list something special this year with a handmade pop-up card. A number of websites provide patterns for 3-D cards, including a site with cards designed by a well-known paper artist. Instead of sending the same card to everyone, personalize cards for each recipient or have children color them to make each unique.
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Things You'll Need
- Computer
- Printer
- Paper: plain white and Christmas card stock or construction paper
- Glue
- Tape
- Scissors
- Paint, crayons, stickers, glitter, markers and other craft decorating supplies
Instructions
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Make a Pop Up Card
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Find a website with a card design that you like and have the ability to make. Some designs are simple, and some can be quite complicated. Paper artist and author Robert Sabuda has a website that supplies templates and directions for making many cards, include several appropriate for Christmas and other holidays. They are labeled “simple,” “intermediate,” and “advanced.” All can be printed in black and white. It’s best to look for a website with illustrations, pictures or a video.
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Choose your paper color. While some pop-up cards require basic white paper, such as one found on Disney’s Family Fun magazine, a colorful card featuring a popped out Christmas tree, Sabuda’s templates and others could be printed on paper in hues and patterns appropriate for Christmas. Sabuda’s website says to print on heavy paper such as card stock or construction paper.
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3
Print the template and directions on your home printer. Print a few rough drafts on basic white scrap paper to make sure you know how to assemble the cards before you print the final drafts on costly craft paper.
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Follow the directions by cutting out the card and assembling it. Sabuda’s directions include easy pictures that show each step in detail. For example, the Christmas Tree has 24 photographic steps. Another website with a pop-up card featuring an angel, instructables.com, provides directions and a video to show you have to assemble the card.
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As some cards require glue or a bonding product, you’ll need to allow time for it to dry. One example is a pattern from enchantedlearning.com featuring two Christmas trees. That card can be assembled without printing a pattern from your computer to your printer, but does require glue, along with different colors of paper.
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Decorate the card, if you like, especially if you have children and they want to help out. Use glitter, markers, paints or stickers, and maybe even cut out pictures of your family. You could use circle cut-outs of your family members' faces as ornaments on Sabuda’s Christmas tree card.
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Find envelopes to fit your cards. If you are mailing the card, figure how much postage you will need. Mail or deliver your cards.
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Tips & Warnings
Pace yourself. Don't wait until December to start assembling your pop-up Christmas cards. It may take some time to get one ready for everyone on your Christmas list.
