Decade Birthday Card for my sister Candy
Materials
- 65 pound cardstock
- 20 pound paper with designs on both sides
- Elmer’s glue
- Light grip cutting mat
Tools
Silhouette Cameo 4
Decade birthday parties are a big deal for my sisters and me, so you will see a lot of my MAKR projects this semester are gifts for my sister who entered a new decade in the beginning of March.
I have never made a popup card before. I began by gathering nice paper I had collected over time. Next I searched Etsy for a greeting card pattern that would suit my sister’s tastes. This SVG pattern cost me just over $1. I selected paper that was printed on both sides for most of the pieces.
I cut each of the pieces and added her name for a personalized touch. The odd shaped white piece is called the “muscle” and it is folded and glued in order to make the “pop up” part of the card.
Challenges
The project was relatively easy. Some paper was left behind on the cutting mat, the parts that would have been weeded out anyway. But this meant that the mat had to be cleaned between each paper change. I had to watch the instruction video multiple times to understand how to create the “muscle” that makes the card pop out when opened.
Lessons Learned
I have cut the paper parts four more times since I made this card. I created a “kit” of the cut pieces for my neighbor’s mother-daughter project. I used different colored papers and skipped the odd text cut-out. The pattern was likely meant to be printed, but the Silhouette didn’t recognize that. I let them watch the instructional video on their own.
Each time I cut this out I learned more about which materials were better for which components. The thinner paper did not cut as clean as the heavier cardstock paper. Thicker cardstock was easier to scrape off the cutting mat.
