Robert's pop-up flower note cards have been one of the most popular items we have here and many of you wanted to know just how they were created. We asked Robert and he agreed to tell us the story himself. So now we take you behind the scenes (and inside the head) of a pop-up making magician!
"I've always wanted to create pop-up cards that people could use year round instead of just for the holidays. Each year I send out many thank-you cards and wanted to have something a little more exciting than a traditional card. So I got tons of reference on flowers and decided to try to make a pop-up rose and daisy. How hard could it be? Little did I know how much work it would be!" |
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Robert's pop-up ROSE and DAISY greeting cards are available now at the Gift Store! |
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| What is this?! It's a mess, that's what! Often when I'm designing I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I just cut out different shapes and tape them here and there, hoping it will eventually look like something. This is my first, pop-up rose. Isn't it beautiful? |
After I get the basic movement worked out (the rose twists open as the card is opened) I start to think more about the actual shape of the flower. What will the petals look like? How many petals should there be? All of these questions must be answered as the pop-up develops. |
This is the final white version of the pop-up rose. Although I've only shown 3 stages of white prototypes here, sometimes I'll make up to a dozen depending on how complex the pop-up is (or how bad I'm failing as I try to design it!). |
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| Since the shapes of my pop-up flowers are so simple, I decided the color should be simple, too. I use a soft but vibrant palette and chose the color for each petal very carefully. In the real world flowers don't come in just one hue I decided that my flowers should come in four different colors. |
This is one of the early designs for the daisy flower that I discarded. It may not look different from the other prototypes but it is. The petals are all evenly shaped and look lovely, but the pop-up mechanism is weak. It doesn't really move very much and you know how much I love movement! |
A new design is made and this time the pop-up move A LOT! The petals seem to really unfurl and this makes me very happy. I call it the "wow" moment here at my studio, when the pop-up moves just the way you want it to. But the flower still looks rough and has to be refined more. |
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| Here is the final white version of the daisy pop-up card. By the time I get to this stage the pop-up works PERFECTLY. Not only do I watch the pop-up to make sure that nothing is getting caught when it opens and closes, I also listen to it for any problems. Paper makes noise when it's in trouble! |
The finished daisy with color! I had to do plenty of research to decide which colors to use since there are many varieties of daisies. Again the colors are bright and simple, just like in nature. |
After the 3D pop-ups are developed, "die lines" are made of all the pieces. The die lines are created using Adobe Illustrator and are used by the manufacturer to create the die mold (which looks like a board with cookie cutters in it) which will cut out the pieces. Each daisy card has eight pieces! |
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| After the pieces are cut out at the manufacturers, they are folded and glued by hand to create the finished card. I hope you enjoy them! |
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