How To Make A Christmas Pop-up Card

November 03, 2022

One of the many wonderful Christmas traditions we indulge in during the cold winter months is sharing our love and well-wishes in the form of Christmas cards. There’s no feeling quite like receiving a nice card with some well-thought-out words from a loved one. But how can you make a wonderful moment like that even more special? Well, here at Boomf, we do it by sharing our merry messages in style! We present a wide variety of awesome and unique cards (for all occasions)! Feel free to have a look at our catalogue(link) and see what we have to offer.

But today, we’re taking it a step further by showing you how to make your very own luxury Christmas pop-up card with some very simple techniques. What follows is an easy, straight-forward guide to making your own homemade 3D pop-up cards, so if you want to make your Christmas Card’s “pop” this holiday season, Boomf has got you covered!

Why Make a Christmas Pop-up Card?

We’re sure you’ll agree that your friends and family deserve a card that stands out and will lift their spirits, getting them in the mood to celebrate Christmas. While there are lots of pretty, classic Christmas card options to choose from, nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ quite as well as a handmade gift. Putting in the time and effort to personalize this it is a sure way of creating a card that your loved ones will keep for years. Furthermore, this is also a fun activity to engage your children in, making for a truly fun winter afternoon.

What materials do you need?

In this post we’ll run you through the steps of creating a Christmas tree 3D pop-up card. You can go as simple or as extravagant as you wish here. While we list only the bare minimum materials below, you can truly make the card yours through using glitter, stickers, confetti and more!

To make a simple Christmas tree pop up card step by step you’ll need:

A5 sheet of paper in either green or white (for snow covered trees).
A piece of brown paper (for the tree trunk) & yellow paper (for the star). If you don’t have colorful paper, you can always use crayons or pencils to paint the right colors on.
Clear glue
A pair of scissors
A ruler
An A6 card & envelope – check out our Christmas card catalogue(link) for some great options!

Making a Pop-up Card: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Step 1: Create the tree branches

Pick up your A5 sheet of paper and fold it into even sections (along the longer edge of the page). You will fold it ‘over and under’ in order to create what is knows as a concertina fold, resembling handheld folded fans. This will leave you with a folded paper strip of the same length as the long edge of the page.

Next, you’ll need to pull out your trusty ruler. You will need to cut your concertina paper strip into five pieces, each smaller than the other. So, if we assume that an A5 piece of paper is about 15 cm at the long end, you can cut the paper into a 5cm, 4cm, 3cm, 2cm and 1cm pieces. These different lengths will give your pop-up Christmas tree a cascading shape.

Step 2: Prepare the trunk of your tree

From the brown piece of paper, cut out a square shape that will serve as a tree trunk in your 3D pop up card. You want if to be smaller than the bottom most part of your concertina ‘branches’, when they’re stretched between the two sides of the card. If we go by the measurements we mentioned so far, that will mean a tree trunk of around 3 x 3cm will be perfect.

Step 3: Prepare the star and other ornaments for the card

Now it’s time to prepare decorations for your card that should really make it stand out. We will start with a star, which you can cut out of the yellow paper. The star will crown the top of your pop-up Christmas tree. Other decoration ideas include:

Paper cut-out snowflakes
Fluffy, snow-covered ground made with ripped-up cotton buds
Paper cut-out gift boxes

The options are limitless. Your loved ones will surely appreciate the effort and personal touch you put into your pop-up Christmas greeting card, so feel free to get creative!

Step 4: Glue your Christmas pop-up card together

First, to glue your tree trunk down, fold it in on both edges by around 0.5cm, and then just once in the middle of the strip. Once folded, the paper should look like it’s trying to close into a tube. Those two 0.5 cm folds will serve as the pieces that will glue your tree trunk to the card, while the middle crease will give the trunk a 3D appearance.

Glue the 0.5cm folded ‘ears’ (one to each page) in the bottom center of your card.

Now, start gluing down your branches. You should start with the thickest strip. Place it right above the trunk and then proceed to glue one of its most outer folds to just one side of the paper for now. Then, follow these same steps with the next strips, going from thickest to thinnest. Make sure you have enough space left for your star!

Once all of the concertina folds are glued to one side of the card, proceed to glue them across the page to the other side. This can be a bit fiddly, but stick with it, as the end result is worth the effort!

Close the card and allow the glue to dry down. When that’s done, glue down your star and any of the other ornaments you’ve prepared, leaving enough space for your Christmas greetings. Once the glue for these has dried down too, your 3D Christmas pop up card is done!

Step 5: Don’t forget to write your Christmas wishes

Finally, we can all agree that a special card like this deserves more than a quick: ‘Merry Xmas! Xx’ scribbled down right before the Christmas dinner. After spending time and effort on making your pop-up card stand out, it could be disappointing for the receiver to miss out on heartfelt Christmas wishes. From quotes, to poems, puns and traditional greetings, there is a multitude of options to pick from, so you can choose what’s best for your loved ones. Still, coming up with what to write on your own can be a bit daunting, so we recommend you have a look through our list of Christmas greetings(link) to enhance your pop-up card this year!

Decorating your Christmas Pop-up Card

If you are struggling to come up with ideas, we’ve collected a few classics for you to draw, print or cut out.

Some colorful gift boxes with pretty bow ties.
A cute, frosty snowman with a scarf and a top hat is sure to make the little ones smile.
If you are feeling extra crafty, you could try your hand at an intricate snowflake.
A Wreath with a bow is a Christmas classic and your grandparents will definitely enjoy it.

The sky is the limit! Get creative with it and celebrate this Christmas in your own style.

Happy Creating!

We hope you enjoyed this simple guide and that it will help you to add a nice, homemade feel to your traditional Christmas card wishes this year. Make sure to share this article with your friends and family so Boomf can help them to share something special with their loved ones too.

For more cards and DIY tutorials, check out our blog. Also, remember that you can always order find fun Christmas card in our collection and personalise it to your taste. And if you want to create your own card online, we have that option as well! We wish you a very merry Christmas from everyone here at Boomf!