Pop-Up Heart Valentine's Card

Here's a card project the kids will love! The hearts and the text on the front of the card are printed and cut out of fuzzy paper then attached to the card with a glue stick. They have the texture of velvet and a 3-D effect is gained by gluing them on top of one another. The pop-up heart on the inside of the card was printed on a 35 lb. inkjet paper to give it just a little bit of stiffness so it stands up when you open the card. We have provided the graphic for the pop-up heart, but you can use any heart clipart you like! The folding is a bit tricky, so we recommend that you print out a few of them on plain paper and practice the folding before you print out the final version.(NOTE: Adults should do the cutting!!)

MATERIALS NEEDED

Card stock

35 lb. inkjet paper (optional - you can use regular weight paper)

Fuzzy paper(see Products>Fun Papers>Fuzzy Paper).

Heart or other Valentine's clipart

Pop-up heart graphic (see link below) or use your own

Scissors

Glue stick

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Open a half-fold card in your graphics program and place a border, if desired, around the edges of the front and the inside of the card. Save the file. Print the card on card stock.

2) Open a blank page in your graphics program in landscape orientation. Type the text you want for the front and the inside of the card. Put a box around each and give it a border in your choice of color. Make certain that the size of the text boxes, when printed and cut out, will fit within the borders you placed on the half-fold card. Now add some hearts in varying sizes and colors. Print out on plain paper to make sure everything looks the way you want and that it all fits within your borders on the card.

3) Once you're happy with the text boxes and the hearts, print them on a sheet of fuzzy paper. Let this dry for about 30 minutes to keep the ink from smearing when you cut the designs out and glue them to the card. Once dry, cut out the designs but DO NOT GLUE ANYTHING ON THE CARD YET!!!

4) Copy the heart graphic from our link by right-clicking and saving the file to a directory on your hard drive. Save the file in .gif format (or .bmp if it doesn't give you the .gif option.)

5) Open the card file you saved and import the heart graphic you downloaded. You're only placing it on the card to get the sizing right. Place the graphic on the inside of your card and resize, making sure you remember to leave room for the text box you printed on the fuzzy paper.

6) Once you are happy with the sizing, cut and paste the heart to a blank page, making certain to retain the sizing. Print this out on a couple of sheets of plain paper first to make certain it will fit and to give you a couple of copies to practice the folding. Then print it out on the 35 lb. paper (or an extra sheet of regular paper, if that's what you'll be using.)Cut the heart graphic out.

7) Following the guidelines on the graphic, fold the heart from the point at the bottom to the valley at the top (between the eyes). Make this fold so that the outsides of the heart are showing. Now fold in on the two smaller diagonal lines. This can be a little tricky and may take a few tries, so be patient with yourself!

8) Once you have the heart folded, place it with the crease against the crease on the inside of the card and fold the heart down so that when you close the card no parts of the heart are sticking out. Make sure you place it high enough so you have room to glue your text box below it.

9) Glue the two little triangles that resulted from the folding. They'll be the only white parts showing when the heart is folded up. Carefully place the heart back on the centerfold inside the card. Close the card and press to adhere. When you open the card, the heart should pop up.

10) Now you can glue the text boxes on the front and inside. Then glue the hearts to the front of the card. Don't be afraid to pile them on top of one another! That's what gives it the 3-D effect!

11) Add some embellishments like glitter glue or ribbon or whatever your "heart" desires!

You're done!

Pop-Up Heart Graphic

Pop-Up Heart Valentine's Card Instructions

For a print friendly version, click on this link.