Valentine craft

{Valentines day} pixelated popup card

By Kate on February 6, 2012

I‘ve been scratching my head trying to come up with a card for my hubby {AKA the non-romantic type}. I finally decided to make this pixely popup heart card!

They are really minimal (which I love) and take about 20 minutes to make (that includes the card, insert and envelope).

You can even make some pixely confetti to put inside the card (if you are a big kid like me!).

Full instructions and printable templates below!

(BTW I remember seeing something similar in a popup book years ago. If anyone knows of the book then do let me know!).

How to

1. Download the popup insert template and print out. I used paper but a thin card would probably be OK too. Using some scissors trim around the edge of the template.
2. Using a craft knife and ruler cut and score your card. See diagram below for more detail.

(If you have a cutting machine then see note at end of post!)

Cut along the black lines and score the grey lines.

3. Make the four valley folds as show below (thin yellow lines shown in fig. 3).
4. Slowly fold the top of the card inwards and the bottom half of the heart should begin to push out. (You don’t need to tape it to the table…I did because I was taking pictures at the same time!)

5. Fold card completely in half and smooth down
6. Make outer card and glue/tape popup insert inside. I just used a plain piece of paper which measured 9.5cm x 19cm and then folded it in half.

7. Print out the envelope template. Cut, score and fold.
8. Pop card inside and tape envelope shut (I added some pixely confetti too)!

Edited to add: The lovely Kayla from saynotsweetanne has send me a .dfx file of the card which you can use if you have a cutting machine. I have never even heard of a cutting machine…let alone used one so this is all a bit of a revelation (for me, anyway)!! You can download the file here. Thanks Kayla! You’re a star! (Please leave a comment to let me know if you find this file useful…if you do then I’ll try to find out how to generate them for all my print/cut posts).

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Valentine craft for LMNOP blog

By Kate on February 4, 2011

Did you know you can make great invisible ink from lemon juice? Armed with this new bit of knowledge I put my thinking cap on and came up with the idea that invisible ink + message in bottle = cool valentines day gift!

The invisible ink bit is easy…simply squeeze a lemon and use the juice to write a message on a piece of white paper. I don’t have a dip pen so just ended up using a q-tip (cotton bud).

Then you need to find a bottle to put the message in. I used an old vanilla extract bottle. I also stuffed in lots of multi-coloured hearts as you can see!

To reveal the message all you have to do is hold it up to a heat source (you can see the results in the image below). You can use a lightbulb, iron (no steam) or candle for example. PLEASE PLEASE be careful and don’t let the kids do this bit. I nearly flambéed a few pieces of paper on the stove top.