How to Make Pop Up Cards and Books
A series of tutorials with free templates to help you learn the techniques of pop up card and pop up book construction. Whether simple or complex, pop ups are built from a few basic mechanisms.
Scroll down to see suggested books on how to make pop up cards, mechanical cards, sliceforms, and origamic architecture.
Tutorial 1: How to make Simple Box pop ups
Tutorial 2: How to make Box Variation pop ups
Tutorial 3: How to make V-Fold pop ups
Tutorial 4: How to make pop up cards with Boxes Cut Separately
Tutorial 5: How to make pop up Boxes with Tabs and Slots
Tutorial 6: V-Fold Tabs and Slots for pop up cards and books
Tutorial 7: How to make Pop Up Words Part 1
Tutorial 8: How to make Pop Up Words Part 2
Tutorial 9: How to make Pop Up Words Part 3
Tutorial 10: How to make Pop Up Words Part 4
Tutorial 11: How to make X Style (Slotted Shapes) pop ups
Tutorial 12: How to make Slotted X with Strap pop ups
Tutorial 13: How to make Slotted X with Tabs pop ups
Tutorial 14: How to make Asymmetrical Slotted X pop ups
Tutorial 15: How to make X Form pop up cards
Tutorial 16: How to make V-Fold Pivots for pop ups
Tutorial 17: How to make Asymmetrical V-Fold Pivots for pop ups
Tutorial 18: How to make 180° Open Top Box pop ups
Tutorial 19: How to make 180° Box with Closed Top pop ups
Tutorial 20: How to make 180° Open Top Boat pop ups
Tutorial 21: How to make 45° Open Box pop ups
Tutorial 22: How to make Tabletop Floating on Boxes pop ups
Tutorial 23: How to make Tabletop Floating on I-Beams pop ups
The Best Instruction Books for Pop Ups
My TOP 5 BOOKS about making all kinds of pop up cards and pop up books, sliceforms, mechanical cards, and origamic architecture pop ups.
1. If you're only going to buy ONE book about how to make pop ups, I suggest Duncan Birmingham's Pop-Up Design and Paper Mechanics. I waited for years for this revised edition to be published. I loved the first version, but it had been so long out-of-print that I whenever I wanted to read it I had to interlibrary loan the last remaining copy in the state--which is in a prison library. (Just wondering: are prisoners allowed to have craft knives??)
Pop-Up Design and Paper Mechanics: How to Make Folding Paper Sculpture, from Amazon,
or from Book Depository (free shipping worldwide).
2. Next on my list, especially helpful for those of us who like to see and touch something to see how it works: The Elements of Pop Up by David Carter and James Diaz. This book has working models of the most common pop up mechanisms. I use this as a reference when I want to refresh my memory on the best way to make a specific 3d shape.
Elements Of Pop Up: A Pop Up Book For Aspiring Paper Engineers, from Amazon,