The time has come to heat up some mulled wine, play some Christmas carols and get your craft on! You guessed it, it’s time to make some holiday cards! So get your papers, scissors and glue ready, we’re making some pop-up reindeer holiday cards. This super fun holiday card is surprisingly easy to make, so check out the instructions and get inspired!
For this year’s holiday cards I was searching for inspiration through the wonderful world of web and stumbled across Martha Stewards’ design from 2007. As she is the mother of all DIY’s and holiday decorations, I had to try it out. Her version you can find here, which is designed by pop-up book artists Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. But as it turned out, her intricate version, as fabulous as it is, is so time-consuming and complex, I quickly started to think about how to simplify it. And as my home printer wasn’t sharing my holiday mood, and jammed up on the first paper, I thought to figure it out by myself. Here is my, more simple version of the Reindeer pop-up Holiday Card!
First of all, you need paper, one for the actual card, and two different tones for the reindeer. Sticking with the holiday colors, I opted for a white pearl-like shiny cast-coated Bindakote 270gsm for the card and 230 gsm SH Recycling for the reindeer and 230gsm IQ Color green for the antlers. I also tried out a version with a backdrop made of 300gsm Color Style leather red, but the white version is my favorite one. All papers are available at Europapier.
You can either follow Martha Stewards instructions and print out a template to use, but trust me, it’s not really difficult to do it yourself. Take the paper you wish to use for the reindeer and draw the outlines of the body on its backside. The easiest is to draw a line in the middle, where you will fold the paper, and only draw on side of the silhouette. Also draw the head of the reindeer in a similar manner. Then cut them out by the line you drew, folding the paper and cutting both sides simultaneously. The antlers you can cut out free hand – don’t worry if they don’t turn out perfect!
After you’ve cut out the pieces, first fold the pieces like in the photo. Glue the head on, in a slightly different angle giving it a 3D look. I found it easiest to glue the antlers to the back of the head, but you can also glue them to the background. I drew eyes and hoofs on the reindeer with a black marker and then glued the reindeer to the card. You only glue the legs of the reindeer, so you can still open and close the card, making the reindeer “pop up” ! 
Making these cards was quite fun to do but a little bit time consuming, so I don’t think I’ll be making too many of them, just for the extra special ones! If you have any troubles and questions about how to make them, just write me in the comments below, and I’ll get back to you.
Happy Holidays card making everyone!