A dear friend celebrated her birthday in October. In advance I asked her what present she would like to have for her birthday. She said she’d be happy with a book token. I bought her one, but realized it’s a rather small present. So it was the perfect time to get crafty! 😀
My friend loves books and butterflies a lot. I decided to combine these two interests of her: a papercut butterfly pop-up in the middle of a book.
In case you’re interested to craft this present by yourself, please find the instructions below.
Craft supplies
- Craft knife
- Self-healing cutting mat
- Scissors
- Graphic ruler
- Something pointy and sharp (for example: needle, drafting compass, eyelet tool)
- Paperclips
- Double sided-adhesive tape
- Printer
- Sheet of black paper
- Sheet of light yellow paper (depending on the color of your book pages)
- Sheet of white paper (to print your butterfly vector)
- Ribbon
- Book (second hand)
- Book token (optional)
Instructions – step by step
Preparations
- Buy a book token at a local store
- Go to a second-hand bookstore and buy a book of the genre the birthday boy/girl likes
- Visit the website Google Images and search for “butterfly vector”
- Take the butterfly image you like best and print it in black & white mode in the size you need
Butterfly
- Cut out the butterfly shape broadly with a scissors
- Put the butterfly shape on a sheet of black paper. Then cut off the uncovered black paper
- Attach the two shapes to each other by using paper clips
- Take a craft knife and first cut out the beautiful details from the butterfly wings
Note: You can cut out small holes with a sharp object like a needle, drafting compass or eyelet tool - Then cut out the butterfly its borders (wings, small body and stems).
- Fold the butterfly in half
Pop-up standard
- Take a sheet of paper which matches the color of the book pages. The paper quality should be about 200 gram.
- Cut two strips of paper. The dimensions are about 1,5 x 3,5 cm for each strip.
- Put the two strips together. Cut to the middle of the strip with a scissors, at one third of the strip’s length.
- Keep the two strips together and fold one third.
- Separate the strips and put double-sided adhesive tape on the folded area on the backside of them.
- Attach the two strips to each other, by moving them together through the cut you made earlier with the scissors (see image number 5)
- Unfold the top of the stand a bit and put double-sided adhesive tape on it.
- Take a book and find the middle of it. Carefully attach the pop-up stand to the pages and put the butterfly papercut on top of it.
Bookmark
To make sure that the birthday boy/girl will open the book to the right page, you could create a simple bookmark. You can for example use a piece of ribbon and attach it with double-sided adhesive tape to the page.
Book token
Hide the book token in the back of the book. You can use small pieces of double-sided adhesive tape to attach it.
