Two cards in May!
Idea
Mother’s Day is in May, so Mom gets a bonus card!
For the past few years, my challenge for the May cards has been to use the same mechanism in different ways. Usually, I start with the mechanism and then come up with two ideas to fit that mechanism. I started a new hobby this year, beekeeping. I’ve been learning about and preparing for bees since last year, and I always knew I’d do a bee pop-up. Since I got my first colony in April, May was the time for the honey bee pop-up card.
I was thinking about doing an old-time bee skep, which is like a basket. One idea was to have the mechanism flat, and a string in the center would pull the skep up, forming a cone shape. That wouldn’t have much movement and would need to be in the center of the card, limiting the design. Instead, I decided to go with a modern beehive in a box, like I have, with bees flying all around it.
Then for Mother’s Day, I used the same mechanism adapted to a bouquet, as I’ve done the past couple of years. Hopefully, the two cards are different enough that they don’t look like the same mechanism.
Design
To get bees coming out of the hive, I thought of the mechanism for the 2020 Christmas card where Santa was falling down the chimney as the card opened.
2020 Christmas Card. (The cat is wearing a mask since it’s in lockdown)
For this year’s cards, I reversed the mechanism so the bees and flowers would move up as the card opened. The mechanism that does this is a V-fold, with another V-fold on top of it. To make it more interesting, I put two Vs on the main V-fold as shown below.
Double V’s for the mechanism
The tan piece is the main V fold attached to the base, then two Vs (in green) are folded upward in the photo. With the sides of each smaller V, I had four planes to attach bees or flowers. To determine the maximum size for each of those pieces, I did a full-size sketch and made templates for the largest size piece for each. In the case of the bees, I then cut plastic out within the template.
For the top of the hive, I attached a thin piece of card for some added depth. I added another set of bees coming out of the front of the hive.
The bees are painted on the plastic like an old cartoon cell. The black lines are on the front and the white and yellow paint is on the back. On the base, I did the same thing, only not on the back, obviously. I was a bit concerned about gluing plastic to cardstock. I found by roughing up the plastic it would stick fine. Without roughing it up, it came right off. The beekeeper was drawn and cut out by hand. The smoke is translucent paper with some white colored pencil.
Back and front of bees
I used to make plastic models years ago, and have quite a bit of paint left over. Keeping your paint closed properly, it can last you a long time. See the dates on the bottles?
Keep your paint closed properly and it will last for years
As I mentioned at the start, the flower card is the same mechanism. The pot is shorter than the beehive, and there are no bees coming out of the front, but the rest is the same. I designed the flowers on the computer for cutting by the Silhouette Cameo. After scanning the templates used for the bees, I laid out the layers of flowers to get them looking right with trial and error in software instead of cardstock.
I was going to cheat and use the daisies from last year, since they were already in the computer, but decided to create new black-eyed Susans this year. After the computer cut the flowers and stems, I attached the centers and debossed patterns on them to give them some depth.
Plain and debossed Flowers
Both cards’ backgrounds are pastels.
I did make mistakes on each card and covered them up the best I could, but I’ll leave those for the sharp-eyed reader to find.
Covers
The May cover was printed out. I must have dripped water on it after washing my hands, and it created a spot on the G. Since the card was complete, I leaned into it and added other defects.
The Mother’s Day cover is an illustration from an old encyclopedia, with some old Hallmark wrapping paper for the border.
Build
- 9” x 6”
- The bases were Strathmore 300 Bristol 270gsm
- The May card was all cut by hand using cardstock and some clear upcycled plastic.
- The Mother’s Day card was cut using the Silhouette Cameo 4 and cardstock.