Paper Pop Ups

I was trying to create a little pop up birthday card for a friend and was having some trouble making it do exactly what I wanted. I have several pop-up books that must be buried at the bottom of a box somewhere, cause they weren't to be found.

"Oh well. Guess I will have to Google."

Found RobertSabuda.com on my first try. It had an example of the fold I was trying to remember and it is a informative little site I will keep in my bookmarks. Robert Sabuda is a children's book author with several pop up titles on his resume (and many others he has written and illustrated). If you are a fan of pop ups you will find something here that will delight you. If you aren't and you work with kids, why aren't you? Pop ups are a great way to reinforce a variety of skills. Geometry. Simple machines. Art. Design.

I used pop up design and building with my sixth grade tech students to help them think in 3-D and it was a cheap way to help them learn the design process. They can design, build, test, re-design and build again over and over again. All for the price of a few sheets of paper and some tape. Plus they had a cool little project they could take home and hang on the fridge!

The page that I am still poring over is the extensive list of pop up books that the author maintains. It has the books I use as a reference and several others I want. He briefly describes each book and lists the advantages and disadvantages of each. This is a great find!

[Image "popup oz"; captured from http://robertsabuda.com/popmakesimple.asp]