Project designed by James Diaz.
Guest James Diaz is an award-winning paper engineer and the president of White Heat, Ltd., a company dedicated to creating paper pop-up mechanisms for books. Diaz's pop-ups always begin with a good idea, and take from 12 to 18 months to design. The story comes first, but the pop-up and other paper engineering mechanisms add the special three-dimensional pizzazz.
From the story concept, the White Heat staff produces many working rough cuts before using black and white illustrations to generate a "dummy" version of the paper mechanisms. Next, color is added to the illustrations and a final working "dummy" is produced. Copies are made of the colored illustrations, and die drawings are fashioned so that the printing company can create templates for producing the book. From there, large quantities of the book are stamped out, printed and sent to distributors.
Tab Slide Card
Materials:
two sheets of 8-1/2" x 11" card stock
utility blade or craft knife and scissors
scoring tool*
white glue or double-sided tape
pencil with eraser
cutting mat or cutting surface
ruler
* Any item that can be used to crease paper such as paper clips, dried-out ball-point pens, leather-working tools, coins, etc.
Steps:
- Fold one sheet of card stock in half and crease it well, using the scoring tool of your choice. The folded dimensions of the card are 8-1/2" x 5-1/2".
- Unfold the card and lay it on a flat cutting surface, placing the crease valley-side up.
- Using a utility blade or craft knife, make the following cuts on the left-hand side of the valley crease (figure A).
- Make a 1-1/4-inch horizontal cut approximately one inch from the bottom center of the card (cut A).
- Make a 3/4-inch horizontal cut approximately 4-1/2 inches from the bottom center of the card.
- Make a 3/4-inch horizontal cut approximately 5-1/4 inches from the bottom center of the card (cut C).
- Make a 1-1/2-inch vertical cut 1-1/2 inches from the valley crease (cut D).
- Make a 1-1/2-inch vertical cut four inches from the valley crease (cut E).
- Make a 2-1/2-inch horizontal cut connecting the cuts D and E at the top (cut F). This is the body of the card. Set it aside.
- From the remaining sheet of card stock, cut a 10-1/2" x 2-1/4" "stick" of paper.Measure and mark a horizontal line 4-1/2 inch from the end of the paper. At this mark, cut away 3/4 inch from each side (figure B). This will leave a "finger" 4-1/2 inches long and slightly more than 1/2 inch wide. This "finger" is still connected to the wider paper at the bottom.
- Fold in each wider side, just over 1/2 inch, and glue these together.
- Use the utility knife to cut notches 1/2 inch down from the bottom of the finger on each side.
- Fold the finger two inches down from the top. Make a second fold 2-1/2 inches down from the top.
- This completes construction of the tab slide. The next step is to insert it into the previously cut card.
- Working from the valley-crease side of the card (the inside), place the wide end of the tab slide into cut A from figure A.
- Slide the narrow finger of the stick into cut B.
- Fold in the wide side of the stick above the notches, so they are the same width as the finger. Slip the folded section through slot B and unfold the sides to the original size (figure B).
- Bend the finger back towards the card and slide the tip into cut C from figure A.
- On the inside of the card, mountain-fold the wide part of the stick 1/4 inch below cut B. Push up and pull back at the bottom of the tab slide (at cut A) to check the movement of the mechanism.
- Glue a picture or action photo to the folds at the top of the finger to complete the project.
Resources Cut-And-Make Pop-Up Cards
by Duncan Birhmingham (ISBN: 0486401243)
Click
here to order this title.
Dover Publications Inc.
31 East 2nd St.
Mineola, NY 11501-3852
US
Website:
store.doverpublications.com
children's pop-up books
Movable Books Society
PO Box 11654
New Brunswick, NJ 08906
USA
E-mail:
montanar@rci.rutgers.edu
Website:
www.rci.rutgers.edu/~montanar/mbs.html
Nightmare Hotel: Danger - Spooky Pop-Up Book
by Alex Henry, Antje V. Stemm (Illustrator) (ISBN: 189063302X)
This title is out of print. Consult local libraries, used book stores or click
here for Amazon.com's book search.
Pop-Up and Movable Books: A Bibliography
by Ann Bontanaro (ISBN: 08108265X)
Scarecrow Press /Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4720 Boston Way
Lanham, MD 20706
USA
Phone: 717-794-3800
Toll Free Phone: 800-462-6420
Fax: 800-338-4550
Website:
www.scarecrowpress.com
Pop-Up! Pop-Up!: Pop-Up Books: Their history, how to collect them and how much they're worth
by Albert Tillman (ISBN: 1888345055)
Click
here to order this title.
Whalestooth Publishing
131 Bond Mill Rd.
Olga, WA 98279
Fax: 360-376-6621
E-mail:
sales@whalestooth.com
Website:
www.whalestooth.com
Pop-Up!: A Manual of Paper Mechanisms
by Duncan Birmingham (ISBN: 1899618090)
Click
here to order this title.
Parkwest Publications
451 Communipaw Ave.
Jersey City, NJ 07304
USA
Phone: 201-432-3257
E-mail:
info@parkwestpubs.com
Website:
www.parkwestpubs.com
Stephen Biesty's Pop-Up Incredible Cross-Sections
by Stephen Biesty (ISBN: 0789401991)
This title is out of print. Consult local libraries, used book stores or click
here for Amazon.com's book search.
Dorling-Kindersley Publishing
Toll Free Phone: 800-788-6262
E-mail:
customer.service@us.penguingroup.com
The Maya, Aztecs and Incas Pop-up
by Duncan Birmingham (ISBN: 0906212375)
Click
here to order this title.
Parkwest Publications
451 Communipaw Ave.
Jersey City, NJ 07304
USA
Phone: 201-432-3257
E-mail:
info@parkwestpubs.com
Website:
www.parkwestpubs.com
The Metropolitan Museum Book of Masks : Spectacular Masks to Pop Up, Pull Out, and Put On
(ISBN: 0789424541)
Click
here to order this title.
Dorling-Kindersley Publishing
Toll Free Phone: 800-788-6262
E-mail:
customer.service@us.penguingroup.com
Ballet Magic: A Pop-Up Book
by Emma Rose, Jan Palmer (Illustrator) (ISBN: 0590262424)
This title is out of print. Consult local libraries, used book stores or click
here for Amazon.com's book search.
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