tree pop-up card

This pop-up is intended as a thank you card. It is adapted from an item in Masahiro Chatani's Paper Magic. I'm not certain Chatani's tree was meant for a card as most the items in the book are architectural. Chatani prefers to attach things with thread, I prefer tabs. His tree looks like a valentine, it has cut out love birds and heart shapes throughout. I omitted those. 

The recipient of  this card  hosts a yard party that highlights their extensive garden at the end of the season. This card reflects that. There is no message except a separate leaf that says "Thank you," and the year. There is no indication as to who the card is from, I assume they will deduce that, if not, then I rather like that too. I wouldn't mind if the card was recycled for another purpose if they so choose, and if not, then that's fine too.

There isn't much to the construction of this card, most the work involves cutting out the two portions of the tree. Neither is there much instruction in Paper Magic, save for attaching the tree with thread, which I did not follow, and a template that I did not use. When the tree is attached to the base with tabs located on two of the four portions touching the base, and not with thread at a single point where those two segments meet at the center, the length of those tabs being glued at converging angles force the tree downward tilting the trunk by that angle when the card is closed, so the opposite portions of the trunk that are cut to a pattern intended to be attached with thread at the center point, do not allow the tree to angle downward and inward. In other words, the bottom edges of the unattached portions of the tree trunk are in the way of the card folding. This doesn't happen when the the tree is attached with thread at a single point at the very center (two points, actually, one for each half of the tree trunk that meet at that spot, so the point is shared, as it were.) In that case the tree never does tilt. For my tree, I snipped off a nick at the bottom of the unattached portions of the tree trunk  in order to clear the way for the tree trunk to swing. This causes the tree to appear not fully anchored when the card is opened and the tree erect, and this wouldn't be a problem if the tree trunk flipped the opposite direction, and it is possible to design a tree trunk that does that, but this arrangement  flips the tree in the undesired direction.  Thread. Tab. One method is slightly more elegant, the other slightly more dramatic.  I like the tab method of attachment  better because the tree actualy does pop up and expands in width simultaneously, instead of never tilting downward on closing thus never popping back into positon when opened. See? It's all about the drama when the card is opened -- not just the tree expanding width-wise, but BANG! actually popping up.  What can I say? It's the boy in me, I like that.