Pop-Up Cards - Paris, Amsterdam, and London

Kate is away this term studying in Bath, UK.  She left at the beginning of January and won't be home again until the beginning of June.  In the middle of it all falls Easter and, more importantly, her birthday.  I know how expensive it can be to mail gifts overseas and, truth be told, what Kate really wants is money so she can travel.  I simply had to send her something, though, so I decided to make some interesting cards to mail to her.

Before she started her coursework, Kate spent some time in Paris, Amsterdam, and London so I decided to try and make three pop-up cards - one for each city.  I collected ideas of different kinds of pop-up cards, scenes from these three cities, and other mailable gifts on a Pinterest board (here).  And then I had to think what I wanted to highlight in each city and what was feasible to make ... and then I got to work.

I think the Paris card was the most difficult because I had three different parts that projected out and needed to accommodate them across the width of the card.  I also thought it looked a bit blah when it was done as it was all blues and browns so I added the red awning, red umbrella, and red balloon.

The Amsterdam card came together the easiest.  I like the bright front doors and the rope railing with the bicycle on it.  I struggled to think what to do with the water to make it interesting, but it all came together when I put ripples of different shades of blue on it.

The London one was the trickiest to draw because of all the symmetrical buildings in the blue and white silhouettes.  I had always intended to include the double-decker bus, but when I was finished I felt it needed a few more spots of red so I added the mailbox and the flags.

I used washi tape on the front covers and wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE on them.

Kate has already opened them and loves them!

Do you want to see three of my favourite photos Kate took on her adventures in January?  This is one my favourite ones from Paris - a view from the Georges Pompidou Centre looking over to Montmartre.  Gorgeous sky, isn't it?

  
And this one is one of my favourites from Amsterdam - taken at the perfect blue twilight moment to capture the twinkly lights and reflections on the canal.

And this one of Rupert Grint cracks me up.  Kate and her friend (and some others) went to the stage door in London to try and catch a glimpse of Rupert  They were rewarded when he snuck out for a smoke break about an hour before the show was to begin.  Kate said Rupert was so nice and posed for photos and didn't appear to mind even though he would probably rather have been alone preparing himself for his role in the play.

Have you ever made pop-up cards?  Mine are pretty simple, but boy are some of them masterpieces of engineering.