I woke up at 4am after Codex, my mind buzzing and wide awake. Since I had to get out of bed I made a cup of tea and sat down with my Codex keepsakes, deciding it might be a good time to figure out the little guy from book artist Emily Martin.
I asked her where this project originated; she said she saw one in 2002, then modified it by adding the turn-ins (flaps that tuck in). What could we call it, I wondered, that would describe it without being too much of a mouthful? It's movable. It's flat. It's made of paper. It has a kind of simple spring mechanism. It's kind of a puppet, but it doesn't have to be. For now it's a Flat Folded Paper Puppet.
It reminded me of what we used to do with place cards to make them talk. For that one, it isn't flat and you squeeze the sides.
For this one, you squeeze top and bottom. And I can imagine the wah-wah sound of the teacher talking in the Charlie Brown animated shows.
But back to the task. I opened up the flaps and started measuring so I could make one myself, and perhaps pass it along. Ultimately, I decided that metric measurements made it easier. So, you'll need a metric ruler for this. Really! Much simpler! This makes a quick little flat puppet or movable card.
I asked her where this project originated; she said she saw one in 2002, then modified it by adding the turn-ins (flaps that tuck in). What could we call it, I wondered, that would describe it without being too much of a mouthful? It's movable. It's flat. It's made of paper. It has a kind of simple spring mechanism. It's kind of a puppet, but it doesn't have to be. For now it's a Flat Folded Paper Puppet.
It reminded me of what we used to do with place cards to make them talk. For that one, it isn't flat and you squeeze the sides.
For this one, you squeeze top and bottom. And I can imagine the wah-wah sound of the teacher talking in the Charlie Brown animated shows.
But back to the task. I opened up the flaps and started measuring so I could make one myself, and perhaps pass it along. Ultimately, I decided that metric measurements made it easier. So, you'll need a metric ruler for this. Really! Much simpler! This makes a quick little flat puppet or movable card.
Tools: Metal metric ruler; pencil; bone folder; X-Acto knife and cutting mat; triangle (optional); oval template or large hole punch (optional)
Materials: one piece of heavy paper: printmaking paper or cardstock, 16 cm x 21 cm, or start with a paper which is about 6 1/2” x 8 1/2” (if you aren't as familiar with metric) and trim to size.
1. Cut paper to 16 cm x 21 cm.
2. Place paper vertically in front of you. Measure and mark 7 cm down from the top. (If you don't use a triangle, you will need to make marks along both right and left edges.)
3. From those marks measure 7.5 cm.
4. Score the marks across, so you have two horizontal scores.
5. Measure and mark 4 cm from right and left edges, top and bottom.
6. Align the ruler with the marks and from the first (top) score use the knife and cut vertically down to the bottom on both sides. You might want to put a dot at the intersection of the score and the ruler so you can see it.
7. Cut along the top score from the slit to the edges. Turn the paper if needed to make it easier to cut. You should have a T-shaped paper now.
8. Measure and mark 3 cm inward from top right and left edges.
9. With the bone folder against the ruler, make a score connecting the 3 cm marks, from the top to the first score.
10. Measure and mark 1.5 cm down along right and left flap edges.
11. Measure and mark 1.5 cm up from the first (top) score.
12. With the knife, cut four diagonals, connecting from the 3 cm marks/scores to each edge mark.
13. Score and fold up along the two side scores and crease tightly with the bone folder. It helps to fold up against the ruler.
14. From the bottom, fold up like a jelly roll (so both scores are valley folds). One, two. Crease tightly.
15. Open up. For the oval opening, make a mark in the center (between right and left), and up from the top score 1.5 cm.
16. Punch a hole or cut a small oval here, centering the dot.
17. Tuck in the flaps. You'll see a folded edge stuck up a bit from the top.
18. Depress that folded edge, squeezing top and bottom. See how the paper underneath slides down? With a pencil, lightly trace around the hole. (You can also try tracing when the paper is pressed down, but that is a bit awkward; however, if you do that, you can see exactly where the hole will land.)
19. Unfold the paper. Write a little word or add a tongue or heart just above the traced area. Erase the pencil line. [Note: I made a mistake and put the heart in the wrong place at first so I glued the cutout oval over my mistake and proceeded.]
20. Decorate as desired. A washi tape collage, perhaps?
Variation: Experiment with the length of the hole. Try two different messages, one that shows when flat, the other when pressed down.
It's cool because you can just pop it into an envelope and mail it to a friend. Although you might need an arrow at the top or instructions on how it works…
Happy Valentine's Day! Thanks for the original, Emily!
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