Dad's 75 today - X-ray Flower Popup Card (365 Cards Day 20)

My dad's reached the splendid age of 75 today.  And he's pretty much in one piece, all there mentally & physically which is something of a bonus by the time you've been on the planet as long as he has.

So I thought I'd make him a card.  Then I realised he's a man (obviously I knew this before) and it's really hard to make cards for men.  He doesn't like football or fishing, and I don't have anything specifically masculine in my stash.

So I had a look through my stash of pictures of styles of card I've already made, and because I have a bit of a fetish about 3-D popup style cards, I picked this style (which I did for a 365 Cards challenge a few years ago on the theme of 'Flourishes').

It did occur to me that in fact this card would be perfect for Dad's birthday, with just a 75 added.  Except I've already given it away. So I had to make a new one.

Which I'm rather pleased with.  I'm not convinced it's particularly masculine, but it's my best effort and I need to have a card for him for his special teatime today ...

It uses 2 x 12" scrapbooking pages from my stash, from a Dovecraft pack by Kate Knight called "Aquamarine - Floral Prints".  Even better, it also fits (nearly) with today's challenge at the 365 Days Blog run by Pam (that I've not played for over a year - it's nice to have time to join in - I'm sure she'll forgive me...) with a 'You're Invited' theme.  For the purposes of the Challenge, this is Dad's invite to his special tea today.

It folds up to 13cm square.  Hmm better go make an envelope - one day I'll make a card to fit a standard size.

How to make the pop-up base shape: 

- I worked out the central square panel (on point) needed to be 13cm square to fit the chosen motif of the big flower.  Pick a measurement you can HALVE easily.

- I'm not great at maths, so I think of this card in terms of proportions.    The height is always the same as the square, the length is always 3x the square and the vertical folds are at 1/6th, 2/6th, 4/6th and 5/6th point along the length (ie the centre DOESN'T have a vertical fold) these 'one-sixth' proportions are always equal to one half of the square.  You make the diagonal folds before the vertical folds because the diagonal folds create the diamond central shape.

- I cut a piece of card 13cm high x 39cm long (effectively 3x 13cm squares).  Marked top & bottom edges at 6.5cm intervals (ie half of square), and scored a line diagonally down from 6.5cm on top to 19.5 cm on bottom and another diagonally up from 6.5cm on bottom to 19.5cm on top - making a cross.  

- Then I did the same on the other side of the card (you can either turn it around, or mark it at 19.5cm & 32.5cm points).

- You end up with two scored crosses with a diagonal square panel in the middle.

- Then fold both ways along all 4 score lines ending up with two diagonal crosses folded in the length of the card.

- The final step is to make the concertina shape by creating vertical scores bisecting the two crosses and then folding the ends vertically to the outside points of each cross.  You can either (a) score vertical lines at the intersections of the two scored crosses (at 13cm & 26 cm respectively)  and fold both ways to make the concertina shape, then make vertical folds at the outside of the crosses or (b) gently create the vertical folds by manipulating the existing scores by folding along one score, then taking the corner of the opposing score line to the midpoint, then making the final vertical folds.  I do (b) as my measuring isn't perfect with thick card and means it all folds better first time.  Dodgy folding stops the card standing up & folding up properly.  Repeat on the other side.

- In origami terms, looking at the back of the card, the scored crosses are both valley folds, and the final vertical folds are mountain folds.  

- Here's a pic of the back so you can see how the folds are formed.

Once you've got the shape, just decorate with whatever paper/ motifs you see fit.  Because of the folds you can quite easily trace the centre diamond shape separately to the side shapes - this means you can use a 12" scrapbooking sheet to cover the whole front by cutting the three shapes separately, and depending on the motifs, the whole lot might come out of a single sheet.

I have a horrible feeling the above instructions are hopeless!  Try it in scrap paper first...

Goblinf