Shark Pop-Up Card

We celebrated my husband’s birthday last week. By celebrated, I mean we ran off to Las Vegas for a few days with friends. We were back home before the big day, so when it arrived I wasn’t sure what to do. How do you top this?

I couldn’t let it go by without some kind of acknowledgement, in spite of the fact that he would ignore it completely if given the chance. I decided to make him a card.

I wanted to try a pop-up card, but didn’t really know where to start. Thanks to my ability to spell the word “Google,” I found a fantastic website full of printable pop-up cards with excellent instructions.

Robert Sabuda is a very talented artist who specializes in pop-up books. Apparently, he is also quite generous – there are 48 pop-up cards available to print. He covers a wide variety of subjects, including several holidays, animals and an entire line of Star Wars characters. They are labeled according to difficulty levels, which range from simple to advanced.

I decided on the shark. I printed it out on white cardstock and proceeded to follow the directions. I found it was helpful to read through the directions as I colored it, because some parts will show at the end and others won’t. You’ll definitely want to follow his instructions on scoring the lines with a paperclip. It would be nearly impossible to do some of the folds otherwise.

I think the hardest part of putting these together is probably the gluing. It would be difficult to hold some of the pieces in place while they dry. I got around that problem by using Elmer’s CraftBond Permanent Tape Runner. It comes in a dispenser, which you just roll over the area you want to be sticky. No dry time and it sticks really well. I really hate waiting for glue to dry. I will sometimes skip a project if it requires wet glue. Patience isn’t my strong suit.

Here’s my disclosure: the glue came in a kit I received from a website I participate in called BzzAgent. They send me products to try. If I like them, I talk about them. Actually, sometimes I talk about them if I don’t like them. It’s something I’ve been doing for several years now, but this is the first time they’ve sent me craft products!

I used the X-acto corner rounder too. I like the subtleness of it. Don’t try to cut more than one layer of cardstock at a time though. I think it cried a little when I did that.

The part that took the longest was coloring, which I will proudly say looks like it was done by a kindergartener. Aside from that, I love the card. When you open it wide, his mouth closes.