Make this Halloween Pop Up Card and cast a witchly spell for your friends.

(click here for a larger Halloween Pop Up Card image)

Here is a Halloween pop up card that would warm a witches, uhm, heart. Pop up cards have a long history, growing out of three-dimensional book crafts that appeared as early as the 13th century when writers began including movable elements in books. Once again, those crafty Victorians adapted these techniques in a big way, mass-producing greeting cards with pop ups, rotating wheels, honeycomb papers, and fold-out constructions. 

Our Halloween pop up card uses one of the simplest structures; reverse-folded supports with attached figures. We borrowed figures from three different vintage Halloween post cards to make this elegant greeting.  The card's message is pure vintage Halloween: 

Softly cross your fingers at the Witching Hour,

Over Fates and Fortunes the Moon will give you Power.

Materials for Halloween Pop Up Card

• Vintage images and template (FREE PDF download).
• Medium-weight paper (dark blue).
• Foam mounting squares.
• Acrylic craft paint (white and light blue).
• Craft glue.
• Small paint brush with round or bushy bristles.
• Bone folder.
• Small scissors or craft knife.  A paper cutter is useful for straight cuts.
• Self-healing cutting mat. 

Instructions

1. Print the vintage images and card text on matte photo paper.  Print the pop up template on medium-weight dark blue paper.
   
   
2. Trim the template to 8" X 6". With a craft knife or small scissors, cut the two pop up strips on the solid lines only. Score all dotted lines. Fold the blue paper in a valley fold (see Tips) on the dotted lines, while at the same time folding the pop up strips in mountain folds on the dotted lines.
   
   
3. Cut out the images of the full moon, the witch and broomstick, and the flying owl, using small craft scissors or a craft knife. It is not necessary to make the inside cuts under the witch's arm or her rump. Cut out the card text in the shape of a cloud, approximately 2" high by 4 1/4" wide. 
4. Holding the blue paper vertically, mark a dot 1 1/4" from the top and 2 3/4" from the left for positioning the moon. Center the moon on the dot and lightly trace around it (see Tips). Paint some fluffy white clouds on the background, staying clear of the moon outline. Shade the clouds on the bottom with some blotches of light blue paint. With the same technique, add light blue shading to the cut-out cloud with the card text (see Tips).
   
5. Score the cloud cut-out horizontally about 1/8" below the text, and fold in a valley fold. Attach the moon to the background with small pieces of foam mounting squares. Glue the witch to the right-hand pop up support so she stands vertically when the card is open and doesn't extend beyond the right-hand edge of the card. Attach the owl to the left of the moon with a small piece of foam mounting square. Glue the cloud with text to the left-hand support and the base of the card, again being sure it folds properly and does not extend beyond the left-hand edge of the card.
6. On the first page of the printed vintage images, score along the left edge of the cover image with the bone folder.  Fold the paper on the score line.  Using a paper cutter or scissors, trim away the unfolded edges of the image.  You will now have an 8" X 6" piece of paper folded to a 4" x 6" horizontal card, with the image on the front.
7. Glue the blue pop-up panel inside the cover.  Avoid getting any glue on the pop up strips. Close the card and press it under books or weights while the glue dries.  You may want to trim the card edges again with a paper cutter to remove any excess or rough edges (see Tips).
8. Open your Halloween pop up card and out leaps your friendly witch with her black cat and owl, half-way to the moon.  Trick or Treat!

Tips

• Valley folds are downward folds. Mountain folds are upward folds.
• When positioning elements such as the full moon, it may be easiest to print and cut them out of plain paper first and use them temporarily.  We did this with the moon because we wanted to be sure we didn't paint clouds behind the moon (astrologically impossible) and didn't want to risk getting paint on the real moon.
• Clouds are the easiest things to paint, along with scrambled eggs and cotton candy. Just use a bushy brush, a stencil pounce brush or a small sponge, and lightly dab the paint. Keep the brush as dry as you can, to give the clouds texture and to avoid buckling the paper with too much moisture. To shade the clouds, get a little light blue on your brush then dab it in white again to get the palest blue possible.
• Although our instructions say to trim the blue inside panel and the white card cover to 8" X 6" separately, our actual practice is to roughly trim nested card panels such as these, glue them together, and then trim them both to the final size with a paper cutter.  This will assure that you have perfect trimmed edges on your cards.
• Use a 4.25" X 6.25" envelope for your Halloween pop up card, or make your own custom envelope with your favorite decorative paper.  Decorate it with a custom "seal" by cutting out the pumpkins and owl left over from the images (adding a little glitter for good measure).