I Love Fall Pop-up Book Featuring Creative Fabrica

Maybe you’ve had some fun creating pop-ups in card making using dies or cutting files…. This project combines the fun of creating pop-up mechanisms and combining the spreads into a bound book.

Let’s look at the finished book:

We’re going to focus on the cover image and the center spread in the book for this article.

You’ll need:

• The following files from Creative Fabrica:
  • Cornstalks
  • Pumpkin Harvest Thanksgiving Day Clipart
  • Cute Farm Animals Watercolor
  • Fall/Autumn SVG Quote Bundle
  • Autumn Leaves Banner Collection Vectors
  • Autumn Leaves SVG…
• Kraft colored cardstock (AC Cardstock)
• White Cardstock
• Darker background (Brown was used)
• Background image (create your own using inks, markers, or incorporating digital images)
• Craft knife
• Electronic Cutting Machine and associated software (Skycut C24 and SCAL 5 Pro)
• Printer
• Vinyl
• Inks (watercolor inks in Fall hues, ink pads in browns or dark oranges)
• Markers (Tombow and Poetique brands were used)
• Scissors
• Adhesive (double-sided)
• Additional resources:  The Elements of Pop-Up (David A. Carter and James Diaz) Pop-up design and paper Mechanics (Duncan Birmingham)

Ready to start?  Let’s do it!

Book cover image

This image uses a banner from Autumn Leaves Banner Collection and is placed on the lower edge of a 5.5 x 4.25-inch box placed on the mat of your cutting machine’s software.  Set the png image to print and cut.  Using a wide non-serif font (Impact font was used).  Remove the stroke from the letters and set the color to none before printing.  Check the Preview window before cutting to make sure the letters will cut and the image will print as desired. Print using your software’s print and cut directions.  If the letters interfere with the image printing correctly, hide the letters. After printing, cut the rectangle and the letters according to the print and cut software commands for your machine.

Add some foam tape to the back of the letters.  Cut an additional piece of dark cardstock and place it on the back of the card with the image print minus the letters.  Offset the letters slightly to create the Ellipse look.  Choose the “I Love…” quote from the bundle.  Hide all but the letters for “I Love.”  Size the letters to about .75 inches and cut with vinyl.  Apply the vinyl.  You will adhere this completed image to the cover front of your book.

TIP for Pop-up Pages and cards:  Always plan on making a test version of each mechanism to ensure that the mechanisms will fold and flatten as desired.  This will lessen anxiety and frustrations if the mechanism needs to be adjusted and you won’t waste any cardstock.  Most mechanisms can be tested using scrap pieces of card and sizing adjusted if needed.  The use of double-sided tape allows you some freedom to adjust the placement of the piece if you don’t burnish the taped areas until you finalize placement. Be sure to trim any excess tape away from the mechanism pieces.  There should be no overhang on tabs or areas where folds may get stuck.

Farm Fresh Pumpkins Spread

(Refer to the video for the final version of this spread.)

Prepare the card base by adhering the printed background to the upper portion of the inside of the card (an 8.5 x 5.5-inch piece of Kraft cardstock scored at the 4.25 mark on the 8.50 side of the paper).  This will be a top-fold spread.

As you may have noticed, the crate is the main pop-up mechanism on this spread.

The following images show the basic steps to create the box.  This version is not cut using the machine, but with a craft knife.  It is best to create a test version first before cutting the piece that will go in your final piece.  This is an 180⁰ Parallelogram.

Once your crate has been made, You’ll need to make the insert and print the elements to embellish it.  Pumpkin images were placed into groups of three.  A couple of the groupings were flipped to allow for back-to-back images.  Set all the images to print and cut print.  Print and cut as directed by your cutting software.  Adhere to the pieces of the insert as shown.

Secure the crate to the card base as shown in the Elements of Pop-Up book.  This project opens top-fold, not as a regular book which is a side-fold, so all of the elements must be oriented with the centerfold in a horizontal direction and the main mechanism equal distance from the centerfold.

Make two “muscles” which consist of two small pieces of scratch cardstock, folded in half and half again.  Add a piece of tape to the first and last fold of these pieces. These taped pieces will attach to the card as shown above.  Make sure that you open and close the card several times to “train” the muscles and the crate to open when the card is opened fully.

Embellish with some printed bales of hay and a trio of pumpkins spread between the upper and lower “muscle.”  Remember these fold down when the card is closed.

The “Farm Fresh Pumpkin” quote was sized as needed. You can use your software and the print and cut commands or just print and cut as desired. For a little more texture, blend a bit of pumpkin-colored ink over the image and a little more on the outer edges to soften the edge of the circle.

Add the barn and cornstalks to the background image as desired.  Once the crate has been attached, add the scarecrow which has a reverse image, and a cornstalk with a reversed image on the back as well.  Using a small piece of tape, adhere the insert to the back of the inside of the crate.  Make sure that the tape is on the crate slats and there is no excess tape showing through that could stick to the card base and impede the opening and closing of the card spread.  If desired, add additional embellishments to the page or journal a favorite memory of a trip to a farm or pumpkin patch to personalize it a little more.

Both images shared in this article can be used as cards or as elements for a pop-up book as done here.  They can be accomplished easily by a maker with intermediate skills.  To add lights and sound, you’ll need to make some adjustments in how you assemble the card base and or pages in the book.

Don’t be afraid to play with paper pop-up mechanisms.  They are fun and you can do so many things with them.  Create your own book bindings using materials you have in your stash. If you are inspired to test the waters in pop-ups, please be sure to share your makes with us.

For more inspiration, visit Jan’s author page here at The Artistry or her blog.