Thursday 6 January 2011

Pop Up Exploding Cube Card Tutorial

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A CLOSER VIEW

This card folds completely flat and fits inside a half A4 envelope.
There are two sheets to download at the end of this post.
The first is a template for the pop up cube base.
The second is a positioning & cutting guide
for an A5 acetate sheet.

To make this card you will need:
one A4 sheet of card for the cube base
one A5 sheet of acetate for the centre pop and acetate strips
(Strong acetate is needed for this project I buy mine from
Joanna Sheen or use recycled packaging where possible).
one A4 sheet of paper for the positioning & cutout guide
Numbers, stars & sentiments tag from the download in my previous post
Hole punch, jump ring, glue, scissors, sticky tape, craft knife,
metal rule and cutting mat.


Print the first download sheet (at the end of this post)
onto an A4 sheet of card.
After cutting out you will have 11 pieces as shown above.


1) Piece A - score along the dotted lines and fold into a cube.
2) Piece B - score along the dotted line, fold and glue inside the open corner of  A to lock the cube together. 


3) Score and fold piece C as shown above.
4) Glue into position in the centre of the cube
as shown in the diagram.


Print download sheet two, at the end of this post,
onto an A4 sheet of paper.
This is a positioning and cutting guide for the centre pop up.
Position an A5 sheet of acetate over the top of the guide.
Cut out the numbers (from the download sheet in my previous post) and glue them onto the acetate,
following the printed guide which shows clearly through the acetate.
Cut out along the red lines.
The base of your acetate cut-out has a slit forming two flaps A & B
Glue flap A onto the front of the centre strip (piece C) in your cube
and flap B onto the back of your centre strip (piece C).
The centre strip is visible in the image below - number (3)


Here's a photograph looking down on the cube card.
Cut out the stars you want to use in the explosion and glue each one onto a strip of acetate about 5mm wide
and no longer than 16mm.
These can be attached to the inside front, back & sides of the cube.
Vary the heights & angles to make the explosion more interesting.
When you have finished glue the inside panels D to K to the insides of the cube.
They cover and anchor your centre acetate (flaps A & B)
 and all of the acetate strip (stars) ends.
(1) in the above image shows the acetate fixings uncovered
(2) shows after a panel has been glued to the inside cube.


note: before you finally anchor the acetate 'star' strips
close the cube card to check they don't over-run the envelope dimensions.

The sentiments tag is attached to the cut out centre of the zero
using a jump ring,
There are hole punch guides marked out for you.

Download Sheet One - Pop Up Cube
click on image to open fully before saving

Download Sheet Two -
Acetate Positioning & Cut Out Guide
click on image to open fully before saving
I'll be developing this idea over the next few weeks
so there will be more projects to come.


I know it doesn't look it but this is a very simple pop up.
I hope I haven't made the instructions too complicated.
X



2 comments:

  1. Wow........thanks for this great tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this. Fab idea and I can see that it will lend itself nicely to other projects. x

    ReplyDelete

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