Christmas pop up card template – a 3D card to print and make

A card that stands up in 3D when it opens: a Christmas tree, a snowman and a pile of presents pop up from the middle. Print three pages, cut, fold and glue – in half an hour you have a Christmas card no shop sells.

Print it
Open one by one

What a pop-up card is

A pop-up card is a folded card whose flat paper grows figures as it opens. Here three „steps” do it: strips between two cuts that slide forward when the card opens and carry the figures. It makes a good December afternoon with children – the little ones color and glue, the older ones cut it all themselves – and a greeting for grandparents, neighbors or friends.

How to make the pop-up card

  1. Print all three pages at 100% scale on card stock of 160–220 gsm – on thin paper the steps sag.
  2. Cut out the insert and the cover along the solid outline.
  3. Cut the red lines of the steps: an adult with a craft knife along a ruler, a child with scissors from the fold of the card folded in half.
  4. Fold the insert in half along the spine, crease each step along its lines both ways, open the card, push the steps inwards, then close it and press it flat.
  5. Cut out the figures. Spread glue on the marked shape on the front wall of each step and press its figure onto it – its bottom on the floor of the card, the small marks beside the figure level with the top edge of the wall.
  6. Put glue only on the edges of the back of the insert – never on the steps – and lay it on the blank side of the cover, the half with the picture behind the back wall with the „To / From” field.
  7. Write the names in the field and your wishes on the lines in front of the figures, then close the card.

Score the folds first with a blunt knife or an empty pen along a ruler – the paper then bends neatly. A glue stick wrinkles the paper less than liquid glue.

Also useful

Drawing names for gifts too? Secret Santa on santa.haus.

Print it

Know someone who would like this? Send them the link – it opens on any phone or computer.