Creating a Simple 3D Birthday Cake Pop Up Card (Free Download)
07 Jun 26 (Today)
Usually, I either see a card with a birthday text pop-up, or a birthday cake pop-up. So I was wondering if I could combine them both into one design and actually get away with it.
If you just want to test it out yourself, you can grab the template below:
A quick note: The blue lines are fold lines, and the red lines are the cut lines.
If it's your first time trying this, don't underestimate the folding part. Folding it the wrong way will probably just merit printing another copy of the template.
As for the design process, it actually took me a while to get this right. Had a ton of trial and error.
Most of the cake pop-up cards I found use a geometric cake base. I tried making one and it works, but with a limitation: it can only really have one support. I tried adding more supports (see right picture), but unfortunately, the card just wouldn't fold shut.
Is it still possible to do? Yes, but it wouldn't be a single piece of paper anymore. You'd need multiple separate pieces to support the circular shape. For this specific project, I just settled for a geometric circular shape so I could keep it simple.
The text pop-up is relatively straightforward. I had no problems with it except for the tiny cutouts in between the letters. In hindsight, I probably could have just remove the spaces inbetween the letters and it would still be completely readable.
Honestly, one of the most satisfying moments of creating a pop-up is finally folding it. It can be super tricky, especially if the design has multiple components. In this case, even though everything is cut from just one piece, it was still rough because I couldn't fold it all in one go. I had to fold it in layers to make sure every single line bent the right way. If you force it, you'll either tear the paper or ruin its natural default state.
That part took me way more time than I'd like to admit.
For the material, I tested both 160gsm and 210/220gsm paper. Normally I lean towards thicker paper, but I actually had an easier experience with the 160gsm. I just had to score the lines a few more times than I usually do, making sure to score it back and forth.
But after all that, getting it to fold successfully definitely gave me a smile.
