craft activity, nativity pop-up card

This post is for children. Should you find yourself with a house full of children I suggest this fun time activity. They will need their usual art supplies, plus card stock, lots of that to draw and cut and experiment with undisciplined abandon, the usual,  scissors, glue, coloring pencils, pens, or crayons, regular child's imagination. The post is lengthy with photos in an attempt to avoid words.

The idea is concentric bands that stand up. They are made as if already smashed flat.   The band must fit the shortest dimension of the card.

The paper bands are divided in three for six equal sections each to make a hexagram.  I'm using a string instead of measuring. 

connected double V, Valentine's Day, prototype

This is the third elaboration of V-mechanism with Valentine's Day herts for content.

The first is a simple V-mechanism as a post, a tree trunk, or a crane, elaborated with content of Valentine hearts.

The second is the same thing doubled and reversed so the posts extend in different directions off the page when the card is opened.

This third iteration positions the posts so that their points are touching. That means their glue tabs will overlap when glued to the background. When doing this it occurs that the glue tabs can be shared and the whole thing cut form one piece instead of two making the whole thing much easier and more elegant. That's only when the post points are touching and only when cut at 45°, and only when glued to the background perfectly flat, and not as posts. Or else the connections must include some wiggle-room.

The mechanism is completed here but the content never completely filled out.

The idea is based on about a dozen or so of these hearts, smaller than these. I did this once with a friend and realized not everybody can cut them with one snip. You should be able to do it with two snips by holding the scissors steady as a machine, mostly, and turn the paper deftly feeding the scissors.

It's not fully elaborated. This is showing the extent that hearts are flung beyond the edges  when the card is opened. There are more arms extending with more hearts flinging in the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions, thereabouts, extending from the center, and even more loaded onto the central mechanisms. Two mechanisms in one due to a bit of origami. 

The mechanism is best suited for things like a car wreck. As far as pop-ups go, nothing actually stands up unless the mechanism is inserted a bit off from perfection, otherwise it will lay flat. 

The content added to the mechanism, hearts in this case, it could as easily be butterflies, flowers, snowflakes, I used Easter eggs one time, car parts, anything you care to fling around chaotically and dramatically.

It relies on two basic basic pop-up mechanisms placed in immediate opposition to each other, one alone is good enough but now there are two, and they're connected diagonally across the central fold so that the connection must twist in order to open, and when it does it twists unwillingly there is a  bit of force, and then it hastens to fall flat, and resists closing the same way, with a forced twist. It's very dramatic with content flipping all around and twisting all around.

Those two mechanisms can be constructed together as one mechanism, and this is what makes this a bit unusual.

These are two crane arms pointing at each other that spread so completely they lay flat when the card is opened.

Another similar band of this shape will attached somehow to two opposite far corners and that will be like two arms spreading a sheet. A sheet in the shape of two arms. 

The whole card and these two posts open and close like a book. The sheet that the two arms spread open and closes like a book but facing in the opposite direction and perfectly perpendicular. They overlap when fully opened, Their central folds form a "t," and their  central folds align when the card is closed, because the  top sheet is connected to opposite corners of the posts. It is only possible way it can fold. It is forced into position, then wants to stay there. Everything in between fully opened and fully closed is a state of unsettled tension. Due to the torque required to open and close, the creases cause the arrangement to snap one way or the other and to resist changing states.

Why the hole? Mathematically each post consists of two planes that change shape as a hinge and converge at this point. Two posts together add to four mathematical planes that converge on a point and that is all well and good in the mathematical world but does not translate to the physical world of paper and glue. The stack of paper at that point is unacceptable so it is removed, with the rest of the glue tabs pretending they function in mathematic perfection. 

The top piece is basically a tent with content of hearts glued to it. If the tent is a little bit larger than both posts when flattened then the tent will stay partially up and sometimes you want that to clue content at the angle the tent is fashioned. 

This is the chaos mechanism shown on pop-construction pages and demonstrated with animated gifs, and used in the bunny passion card. It is a great mechanism for things that spin. Here it flings hearts as the Easter card flings eggs. 

exuberance Valentine's Day card

Double whammy Valentine's Day card, the same thing as before except twice in one card. That's why it so exuberant.

This is the second part of developing the idea of the most simple and fundamental pop-up card principle of all, the V-mechanism, upon which most pop-up activity is based. It is a ridiculously simple mechanism with many permutations and elaborations but for now all that is happening is the same basic thing that is already mastered is now doubled. 

This is regular copy paper that's colored, not card stock, so flimsy. The good thing about being expert is six hearts can be cut at once so a stack multiplies quickly. Where rigidity is required these hearts can be layered, just a few laminations and the area becomes sturdier than the card stock itself. It's like the miracle of plywood.

This is the familiar template for the V-mechanism. (The little side piece was intended for something else later but then not used, it can be ignored.)  Since the V-mechanim is cut at a 45° angle, that is, presenting a little 90° arrow, when folded in half for collapsing upright posts, tree trunks, cranes, that lay perfectly flat against the background or be glued into place over the central fold as angle-iron posts instead. These are as if they are posts. But they could be scenery that lays flat.

Now used twice, oppositely.

Positioned in opposition to each other this time to throw things off the page in opposite directions.

And filled out with hearts the same way as the first time that used only one such post.

Again, each heart is checked in the near closed position to ensure nothing sticks out and to check what space is available to fill when closed. Anything interfering with movement will be crushed and anything sticking out will be trimmed. 

It doesn't even have to be an occasion, you can make your own occasion of your exuberance for life and the things you love about it, and express that in a straightforward fashion. Everyone likes that, things so simple as:

I LIKE CAKE! 

has nearly universal appeal, nearly I said, you can substitute lasagna or kittens or whatever you're thinking. Perhaps fit the cover with a regular red heart for bit of misdirection from the color inside. 

Valentine's day pop-up card

This is a png file for you to drag and drop to your desktop if you need help drawing hearts.

Start out with a page of hearts, however you make them is fine. They do not need to be folded in half, they do not need to be red, they do not need to be regular, they do not need to be symmetrical, they do not necessarily have to be hearts.

Drag and drop png file for V-mechanism.

If you must, a png file to help you crease a sheet of card stock in half. Otherwise just measure it.

Cut out the V-mechanism post, pre-crease along the dotted lines, align the point with the  central fold and glue one of the two tabs.

Testing to make sure it closes properly, that nothing sticks out when it does close, that the alignment will work.

Then glue the other side in the folded position.

Close and weight down.

This is the way to assure both sides are perfectly even. But paper is not mathematical perfection of lines and points so sometimes the paper point is nicked off to eliminate the trouble of doubled card stock in tight places where paper thickness cannot be reduced to a mathematical point.

The hearts are glued to the structure and they can go right past it in all directions and cross over each other as these do where their planes intersect.

Each new heart added toward the edges is checked in the near-closed position before gluing  to make sure it will not project past the edges when the card is closed. It's very important to check each addition until you see what is happening inside the card so that no heart is placed in interference with others and do not violate edge restrictions.

The little heart placed in the corner was glued, it is the heart on the right and this is how far it lifted up when the card is opened half way. Below you can see behind the large bright heart how far it moves when the card is fully opened.

Then hearts added with abandon and you can see how far you can go and in which directions, and which hearts can build out so that they connect forming a superstructure of its own around the original V mechanism which becomes more and more obscured with each additional heart. You can use hearts to disguise the structure. You have to decide for yourself when to stop adding hearts. 

I want it to suggest an explosion so I'm adding lines to show that. We artist-types do that, change plans as we go and live with the results.

A few more hearts directly onto the background for the heck of it.

Think of some touching message of direct personal warmth. Honey, I love you so much I  can't stand it sometimes, whenever I think of you my heart is aflutter.

You can use extra hearts for the cover, for the back of the card and for the envelope. Or stuff the card or envelope with them. Or keep them in your pocket.