Be still my heart and get crafting!

A heart craft round-up:

Woven heart pockets

3-D heart

Quick and easy Homemade Valentine's Day cards

Print your own maze Valentines:

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.
[Download the PDF for the Heart Maze.]
[Download the PDF for Heart Maze Valentine's Day cards.]

One a little more little kid friendly.

[Download the PDF for Heart Maze Valentine's Day cards.]

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Heart sun catcher

Heart necklace

Valentine, you amaze me! (redux)

It was brought to my attention that last year's Valentine's maze was a little challenging for the younger set. With that in mind, I this year I made one a little more, little kid friendly.

[Download the PDF for Heart Maze Valentine's Day cards.]

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Valentine, you amaze me!

[Download the PDF for this Heart Maze.]
[Download the PDF for Heart Maze Valentine's Day cards.]

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Gift idea: pop-up colouring card for kids

(This post assumes you're familiar with my more detailed instructions of how to make Horizontal Fold Pop-up cards.)

Recently, Ask Moxie had a post titled "Q&A: Does 'no gifts' really mean no gifts?" Should you feel uncomfortable going completely empty-handed, making a personalized colouring card like this (optionally including a selection of appropriately themed stickers) is a nice compromise.

Materials:

• 2 sheets of 8.5" x 11" cardstock or construction paper
• X-Acto type knife
• glue (stick-glue or white glue or rubber-cement)
• template with measurements (PDF file*) or template without measurements (PDF file*) (use this legend to decipher the folding symbols)
• optional: a selection of stickers to include in the card for the child to use
  

Instructions:

• create the front cover of the card (text on the lower half of the letter sized cardstock)
  
  
  
• create the inside of the card (text on the upper half of the letter sized cardstock, offset to allow for the pop-up mechanism)
  
  
  
• create the decoration for the pop-up portion of the card (in this case, the recipient is turning four)
  
  
  
• print off a copy of the inner template
  
  
  
• I transferred the template onto the inside of the card using the pinpoint method
• trim the pop-up decoration to size
  
  
  
• create the pop-up portion following steps three and four from making Horizontal Fold Pop-up cards
  
  
  
• glue the decoration onto the pop-up portion of the inside of the card
  b
  
  
• if desired, add additional designs to be coloured on the front of the card
  
  
  
• glue the inside of the card into the outside of the card
• optional: include a selection of stickers for the child to use to decorate the card

Write your message to the birthday child and deliver!

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(*) When printing out PDF documents, be sure to set "Page Scaling" to "none" (you'll want the document to print at 100%). You may need to adjust the template on your paper depending on your printer's "offset" settings.

Pop-up reference

via Rainy-day Geekdad Project: Home-made Fold-out Books comes


Pocket Paper Engineer: HOWTO make paper popups

Pop-up cards (horizontal fold)

Materials:

• 2 sheets of 8.5" x 11" cardstock or construction paper
• X-Acto type knife
• glue (stick-glue or white glue or rubber-cement)
• template with measurements (PDF file*) or template without measurements (PDF file*) (use this legend to decipher the folding symbols)
• things to decorate the card (such as markers, pencil crayons, stickers, stamps, cut-outs etc)

Instructions:

1. review the template with measurements (PDF file*)
   
   
   
2. print out the template without measurements (PDF file*) to transfer the pattern to your desired material or print it out directly on the card stock as a practise run (be sure to check the specifications of your printer before printing on unusual media -- using "out of spec" materials can cause permanent damage to your printing hardware)
   
   
   
   
3. Cut along the indicated lines with an X-Acto knife.
   
   
   
4. Make "mountain" and "valley" folds as indicated on the template.
   (viewed from the left)
   
   (viewed from the right)
   
   
5. If you're using a sticker or a cut-out to decorate, get it ready.
   
   
   
6. Affix the decoration to the 2"x3" rectangular "pop-up" portion of the card.
   
   
   
7. Fold the card in half.
   
   
   
8. Take the second sheet of cardstock and fold it in half lengthwise. This will form the outside of your card.
   
   
9. Place the "inside" of the card (the pop-up part) over the outside of the card and glue them together.
   
   
   
10. Voila! You now have a pop-up card!
    
    
    
    

With practise and experience you can scale the template to make different sized cards, cards with multiple pop-ups and different sized and shaped pop-ups!

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(*) When printing out PDF documents, be sure to set "Page Scaling" to "none" (you'll want the document to print at 100%). You may need to adjust the template on your paper depending on your printer's "offset" settings.

Pop-up cards (vertical fold)

Materials:

• 2 sheets of 8.5" x 11" cardstock or construction paper
• scissors
• glue (stick-glue or white glue or rubber-cement)
• template with measurements (PDF file*) or template without measurements (PDF file*) (use this legend to decipher the folding symbols)
• things to decorate the card (such as markers, pencil crayons, stickers, stamps, cut-outs etc)

Instructions:

1. review the template with measurements (PDF file*)
   
   
   
2. print out the template without measurements (PDF file*) to transfer the pattern to your desired material or print it out directly on the card stock as a practise run (be sure to check the specifications of your printer before printing on unusual media -- using "out of spec" materials can cause permanent damage to your printing hardware)
   
   
   
3. Cut along the indicated lines. The pieces you remove may be discarded.
   
   
   
4. Fold the paper in half, lengthwise.
   
   
   
5. Orient the paper so that the "flap" is positioned in the lower right corner.
   
   
   
6. With the paper oriented as above, fold the lower right hand "flap" up at a 45 degree angle.
   
   
   
7. Undo the fold made in the previous step.
   
   
   
8. Turn the project upside down, with the "flap" resting on the upper right hand corner as shown below.
   
   
9. Fold the "flap" along the same 45 degree angle fold that was made previously. (This time we're folding in the opposite direction).
   
   
   
10. Open the project up and crease the protruding rectangular bit along the "mountain fold" line right up until it meets the "valley fold" crease in the middle of the page.
    
    
    
11. Decorate the protruding rectangular bit. Be creative, use stickers, markers, cut-outs etc. This is the "pop-up" part of the card.
    
    
    
12. Fold the card up.
    
    
    
13. Take your second piece of cardstock and fold it in half lengthwise.
    
    
    
14. Take the "pop-up" insert and glue it into the full sized sheet of cardstock. Be sure to glue it so that the top of both pieces of paper line up. (When the card is opened, the "pop-up" piece should be above the top of the card.)
    
    
    
15. Voila! Your very own pop-up card!
    

With practise and experience you can scale the template to make different sized cards and different sized and shaped pop-ups!

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(*) When printing out PDF documents, be sure to set "Page Scaling" to "none" (you'll want the document to print at 100%). You may need to adjust the template on your paper depending on your printer's "offset" settings.