Back to work
Idea
For the December card, I did a follow-up to the birthday card, showing the mice hard at work after the strike. My main thought was to have them building pop-ups or working on a machine that made them. For inspiration, I looked at images from Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 film, “Modern Times”. In particular, the scene where he goes through the gears of a giant machine.
Charlie Chaplin in ‘Modern Times’
Design
I played around with some flat designs that had wheels and pull tabs, but thought it would be better if the machine were three-dimensional. I used the parallelogram mechanism again and made a large pop-up-making machine operated by the mice. Even though it is three-dimensional, it still has pull tabs and wheels, making a simple parallelogram card into a more complex pop-up. I did one small sketch, then put the design into the computer and iterated a few more times.
Sketches
Here’s the side view, showing the parallelograms.
Side view
After it was cut out but still flat, I illustrated it with pens and colored pencils. Here I’m outlining the gears and using a piece of paper as a mask to avoid getting ink onto the background.
Inking with a mask
I even sneaked in the mice playing dice in the back room. In the upper left, you can see where “Don’t Look Here” is hidden.
Management probably wouldn’t approve
There are four interactive mechanisms on the card. The first one is the big gear with a mouse moving inside the machine like Charlie Chaplin. It used a simple pivot as I’ve done on other cards (see March 2022). There is a piece of card on top of it to hide the mouse as he goes through the bottom of the machine.
Gear
In addition to “Don’t Look Here,” there is a “Can’t Look Here” on the back of the big gear.
‘nuff said
The second mechanism is the control panel in the center. It has four lights and two meters that change as the tab is pulled. It is the most complex mechanism on the card since the lights slide and the meters pivot.
Control panel
To get the lights to blink, the pull tab has green and red lines that move as the tab is pulled. Here’s the pull tab colored in. The two cut-out squares are where the tabs for the meters will go through.
Blinking lights
Since the pivots for the meters are so small, I couldn’t use the same method as for the large gear. Instead, I used a punch to make some discs out of thin foam. Here they are in green, glued to the back of the card. I had tried this before using paper pivots, but usually the paper disc would split into multiple layers and ruin the mechanism. The foam isn’t made of layers, and worked much better.
Pivots discs
Here’s the back of the mechanism, assembled with the meters attached to the hinges.
Meters on the pivots
And here’s the mechanism in action.
Meters in action
The third mechanism is the conveyor belt on the right. It is a simple pull tab that moves the pop-up cards along the belt.
Assembly line
Here’s the pull tab ready to be attached to the card. The gray part will go behind the main mechanism, and the “cards” will go in front of it, so when the tab is pulled, the cards appear to move along the belt. The first card had to be started on the belt to avoid catching when the tab is pulled.
Assembly line ready to attach
And here’s the conveyor belt with the cards on it. The three cards on the belt are the three December cards.
Hot off the press
The last mechanism is a simple pull tab that ejects a mouse out of one of the pipes.
Weee!
Here are all four mechanisms in action.
This was a fun card to design and make. It started with a simple parallelogram as the base and was enhanced with the four moving parts. I hope you enjoyed it.
Cover
I rummaged through my scrap bin for remnants and goofs from over the years to make the cover. See if you can identify any of them before looking at the key below.
| Number | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 & 14 | A birthday or Mother’s Day? | |
| 2 | October 2024 | A flock of black birds |
| 3 | Christmas 2019 | Gnomes |
| 4 | December 2025 | This card |
| 5 | August 2018 | Kitten in the kitchen |
| 6 | April 2025 | Tacks time |
| 7 | May 2016 | Cat’s favorite things |
| 8 | Christmas 2024 | Mittens |
| 9 | May 2024 | A game of chess |
| 10 | January 2017 | Where’s a black cat when you turn on the lights? |
| 11 | December 2024 | How does a Christmas tree work? |
| 12 & 19 | March, April, May, June 2018 | Three little kittens |
| 13 | January 2025 | Shel Silverstein’s “SAFE?” |
| 15 | February 2016 | Choose wisely |
| 16 | September 2013 | Photos of Howard Jr. |
| 17 | October 2013 | Remake of the Hallmark centerpiece |
| 18 | April 2022 | Playing card bridge |
| 20 | August 2025 | The Jumblies |
| 21 | April 2021 | Mars Rover |
| 22 | Mother’s Day 2022 | Tulips |
| 23 | August 2014 | Howard Jr as a cat |
| 24 | January 2016 | Don Quixote tilting at windmill |
| 25 | Christmas 2025 | Penguins |
| 26 | May 2021 | Copse & robbers |
Build
- 9” x 6”
- The base and inner mechanism were Michael’s cardstock
- The illustrations were done using PrismaColor pencils and Pitt Artist Pens