First, you’ll need ten pieces of lightweight paper. I did mine with plain old bond paper in a light lavender, and it came out pretty bulky at the spine. Wrapping paper or origami paper might be good to keep the bulk down.

We’ll start with some endless folding. Fold one piece of paper in half.

Fold it in half again to quarter it.

Now fold one side up to the other. This will create eighths radiating out from the center point.

Cut to create a circle. I like to cut half, then fold one layer over to the other side to use as a guide, which makes my cutting somewhat symmetrical.

Open up the circle, and smooth out any pointy spots, then refold it and even it up.

Use the first folded piece as a cutting guide for the remaining nine sheets. Fold them into radiating eighths, and turn them into circles.

Unfold all ten circles, and stack them so the first long, center folds are nested into each other. This will save you fumbling around later.

Now we’re going to glue. Using a glue stick, you’re going to apply a big, wet dot of glue on alternating folds. Wait, this is kind of confusing—here’s a gluing guide:.

On the first circle, you’re going to apply dots on all the A folds.

Put the second circle on top of the first, lining up the center fold, and press down.

On this layer, you’re going to apply glue dots to all the B folds.

Apply a third circle, and press down, then fold the circles in half on their center lines. This will help the closed pop-up lay a little flatter.

Keep layering circles, matching center folds, and alternating glue dot placement. Remember to fold in half after applying each circle.

OK, here’s the last circle. If you started with A dots, you should be ending with B. On this last circle, you’re just going to apply glue dots to the two side B folds.

Fold the circles in half and press down. This will glue the final circle’s two sides together to close the pop-up and turn it into a half-ball shape.

After a few minutes, gently open the pop up. I checked to make sure that all my glue dots held—and any that didn’t were reglued more heavily. I also checked to make sure that nothing that was sticking where it shouldn’t be. A couple of the circles had to be gently persuaded to open properly.

Close the circles up and weight them. Let them dry completely before you proceed.

If you wish, use a heavy pair of scissors to even up the circles, which might not be perfectly aligned after folding and gluing.

To apply into a book, glue several pages together to support the pop-up. Apply glue heavily to the back side of the first circle, and press it in place in the spine of the book. Close the book immediately so the wet glue will allow the pop-up to slide into place. Open to check that everyting is where you want it, then close the book and let the glue dry completely.

]]> http://gomakesomething.com/ht/popups/circle-pop-up/feed/ 0 http://gomakesomething.com/ht/popups/tabbed-pop-up/ http://gomakesomething.com/ht/popups/tabbed-pop-up/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:01:05 +0000 Lisa Vollrath http://gomakesomething.com/?p=199 This week, I worked in the altered book of local mixed-media group member Mary. Her book is titled Paris of the Past, so how could I resist doing a layout about the Eiffel Tower?

I’ve done pop-up Eiffel Towers in several previous altered books. The simple tabbed method I use to create them can be adapted to just about any image that can be folded.

Here’s how this layout went together:

First, I put the background in. Mary’s book used to be a blank journal, so I covered the pages with French text, applying it with a glue stick.

Since the text pages were glaringly new and modern, they needed a little toning, which I did with a couple of glazes.

Over the French text, I applied some little Eiffel Tower blueprint images, and the title, all of which were created on my computer and printed on good paper, then glued in place with a glue stick.

OK, now it’s time to deal with the pop-up. I found a vintage photo of the Eiffel Tower, and sized it to fit into the book, making sure it was no taller and no wider than the layout—that’s important. I printed the image out on cardstock, and carefully cut it out with sharp scissors, leaving some extra scenery on either side of the tower to act as my tabs.

I wanted the center of the pop-up to be the center of the tower, so I folded the postcard on the tower’s center line. You don’t have to make the center of the pop-up the center of the image—and in this case, my center is not the center of mine. There’s more scenery to the left of the tower than there is to the right. That’s OK.

Next, I folded the tabs. I’m going to even out the pop-up here, folding the tabs the same distance from the center fold. See that big strip of white? That’s how much larger one of my tabs is than the other. As long as the fold of the tabs is the same distance from the center line, it doesn’t matter how large they are, or whether they’re the same size. It’s also important that the fold for the tabs be parallel to the center fold.

Here’s the folded pop-up, with its tabs in my hands. You can see clearly here that the tower is in the center, and the two sides of the pop-up are the same size, but the two tabs are clearly different sizes.

Now, I test the pop-up, and start thinking about positioning. If I position the tabs far apart, the pop-up will be flatter than if I position them closer together. I really want this tower to jut out at the viewer, so I’m going to place them closer. When the pop-up looks right, I make a mental note of where the tabs should be glued in. You might want to make a mark with a pencil on the background as a guide if you’re not comfortable with guesstimating.

Now, I apply glue to one tab with a glue stick. This is a good time to be liberal with the glue, because this tab is going to endure quite a workout over the life of the book. Just add glue to the one tab for now.

Press the gluey tab onto the background where you’ve decided it should be positioned.

Fold the pop-up down, so the second tab is facing you. Apply a liberal amount of glue to the tab, and hold the pop-up in position.

Close the book over the pop-up, removing your hand as the facing page touches it. You’re closing the book over the gluey tab. Press down on the back of the book.

Open the book, and you’ll have a perfectly positioned pop-up. Press down on the newly glued tab, then close the book again, and let all the glue dry.

This method never fails for me. I always end up with pop-ups that are perfectly centered!