Pop Up Pirates

As soon as I heard Tilda and Edwin were being made into pirates, I just knew I had to make them their very own pirate ship. So for the past two days, I have been working on this, my very first pop-up card. Of course I had to add Jolly Roger Tilda, who has made landfall to hunt for buried treasure.

Obviously, I didn't bother with the front of the card much; after all, the card is all about the inside...

Here is proof that it all does fold, well, perhaps not "flat", but it would be closed if I wrapped a ribbon around it. But I prefer to display it open anyway.

It sure took a lot of experimentation; I made a model from regular paper first to get the positioning, elements and general format down. Then I made the real thing out of cardstock; the card measures 6" by 6". The main object - the ship, has its base attached to the card. Then small tabs hold the sides of the ship in place when open. The mast, which is two pieces and extendable, is attached to the base and folds flat. It also supports the bench in which Pirate Edwin and Pirate Tilda sit.

At the front of the ship I made an anchor, and attached it with string through one of two grommets I inserted at the bow.

I hand drew all the elements except for Tildas and Edwin; the sun, cloud and seagull in the background are all attached with dimensionals to pop them out too. The parrot, fish, waves and Jolly Roger Tilda are attached with tabs.

Copics were used to colour everything except the gold trim on the ship and the whitecaps on the waves. For those, I used acrylic paint. Here are the many Copics used on this project:

Jolly Roger Tilda
Skin: E00, E11, R20
Hair: Y21, E97, E99
Suit, boots, scarf and flag: N0, N3, N6
Skirt: R29, R89
Scroll: E51, E57

Pirate Tilda
Skin: E00, E11, R20
Hair: YE51, E55, E57
Shirt, pants, boots and hat: N0, N3, N6, R29, R89, Y28

Pirate Edwin
Skin: E00, E11, R20
Hair: N3, N6, N9
Suit, boots and hat: E51, E55, E57, E59, E79

The rest
Pirate ship: E29, E74, E79
Sail: W1, W3
Anchor: C2, C5
Fish: YR00, YR21, YR23, YR24
Parrot: YR04, YR09, R46, R89, B16, B18, Y38, W1
Sun: Y11, Y15, Y19
Gull: W1, W3, W5, W7
Cloud: W1
Beach: E33, E35
Grass: G99

If I were to give this as a card, I would attach a little sign in the "beach" that finishes the front saying of "X Marks the spot" with "to discover a treasure chest of fun!"

But I think this one is a keeper just for me.