Spiral Pop Up card Tutorial and Tips

The Spiral Pop up card is well known to most of you and I am sharing this tutorial with tips for newbies.
The spiral pop up card is a favorite of mine. It is quick and easy to make, is so versatile and gives a "wow" effect on opening the card.Here are some Spiral Pop Up cards I have made

Spiral Pop Up card Flower Garden

Spiral Pop Up card - Flowers

Spiral Pop Up card Butterflies

Spiral Pop Up card Butterflies

 This is a heart shaped card with a heart shaped spiral pop up mechanism inside

Spiral Pop Up card Heart Shaped

Spiral Pop up Card Heart

How to Make a Spiral Pop Up card
Material required to make a spiral pop up card 

• Folded Base card
• Paper for spiral mechanism 
• Scissors 
• Glue 
• Images for your spiral.

Folded Base card- should be strong enough to support your Spiral pop up mechanism. Standard card stock should do well.The more images or stickers you use on your spiral the stronger you need your base card to be.
Chosing your spiral mechanism
Shape:The simplest and most common spiral card is a circle cut in a spiral fashion.
You can actually make a spiral card with other shapes - a square,heart ,rectangle or triangle are very effective though more difficult to cut.
Other ideas: the spiral can be a snake or a plant
Material: Thin paper is good enough if you don't want to add images to the spiral otherwise opt for a thicker paper
Try transparent sheets[OHP paper] for the spiral shape- it gives a splendid effect.Choose the thickest variety strong enough to support the pictures you plan to stick on the spiral.
Color: Contrast with the background if you want the spiral to stand out.Choose the same color as the base card if you want the images you stick on the spiral to really have a pop up effect.
How to Make a Spiral Pop Up card
1. Make a shape- square, circle,heart,rectangle etc.Since the spiral has a nice geometric feel its nice to use a template to get your outer shape right.Here I have used my daughters toy plate as a template 

Spiral Pop up card Tutorial

2.Cut from the outer edge inwards in a spiral fashion following the shape of your template. You can do this free hand or after marking.

3.Position the cut spiral mechanism on your folded base card. You can center it or make it off center for other effects.In both the butterfly spiral pop up cards I have made above I have incorporated other pop up mechanisms too.

Spiral Pop up card Tutorial

4. Apply glue on the center of the spiral and for a short distance on the other side of the spiral at the tail [ shown by black double head arrow].How much you want to glue down depends on how much of movement you want to give your pop up mechanism.If your spiral is made from thick paper and your images are light you need to glue only a short length.Don't get glue on the adjacent loops.

Use PVA glue- avoid thin runny glue or the glue stick- both don't work well here.

Spiral Pop up card Tutorial

5.Fold over the base card and once the glue dries open-- your spiral is ready.

Spiral Pop up card Tutorial

6. Now adorn your spiral with pictures.Some tips here:

Position your pictures so that on opening and closing the spiral mechanism is not hindered.

Space your pictures so that the effect looks good with closed as well as open spiral.

Do not chose heavy embellishments

Keep in mind that the pictures on your spiral will be visible from below and up. In this card I have stuck the punched flowers on on both sides of the spiral at places

Spiral Pop Up card

Have fun and do leave me a link to spiral cards you make or have made- I just adore them!
Linking to MIM