The Inventor of Pop Up Books and Cards

I bet you didn't know the father of pop-ups was named Lothar Meggendorfer and he was a German illustrator and cartoonist. 

He was a paper engineer that wrote movable paper books to entertain children. 

Reference: By Nicolet1327 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105757151

He wrote many clever paper action books.

Reference: By Lothar Meggendorfer - Cynthia Burlingham, Picturing childhood: Illustrated Children's Books from University of California Collections, 1550-1990, 1997, p. 34., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16453105

Meggendorfer was also a student of Munich based puppeteer Josef Schmid. It is thought that his teachings greatly affected his movable actions of the figures in his books. He also worked as an illustrator for a weekly comic paper.

Meggendorfer's illustrated movable books were sold in many other countries including the United States, Belgium, England and Russia. He illustrated and published over 200 movable books.

So the next time you see a clever pop-up book or card, you can thank Lothar Meggendorfer, the father of pop-ups. Pretty clever, huh?

Bet you didn't know that!

Another Unfinished Find

I hand sculpted this little folk art fairy out of paper clay a few years ago but I never finished her. So when I ran across her again, I decided to bling her up and finish her out.

I cut her green overdress into little points all around and made her a longer paper skirt.

I dragged out my flowers and shaped them with a large ball tool to give them dimension and I cut her a pair of wings. I used leftover scraps of AG paper and flowers.

I decided to repaint her face and smooth it a little and to put some Swarovski crystal jewels in her hair. I also added a little pearl necklace. 

To finish her up I trimmed her all in gold and hot glued everything on her skirt.

She has a secret though. she is glued over a little bottle and the lid unscrews to revel a hidden compartment. She stands on her own and looks perfect hiding under a colorful plant. So glad I finished her up!

 

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall

As I continue to clean up my craft room and reorganize, I'm running across a lot of older projects I've stored away and this is one of them. 

I fell in love with this pattern the first time I saw it over ten years ago. What better time to make a Humpty Dumpty egg head doll than early Spring? This pattern is from Suzette Glastonbury Rugolo. 

I have to say that this was not an easy pattern or a pattern for beginners. The eyes are a little tricky. I also decided to make him something to sit on that he could possibly fall off of. Humpty's brick wall was a box that I covered with little brick fascia and plaster.

Humpty's wearing the finest clothes in the land. All silks and laces. Humpty's jacket is made from a silk brocade fabric and his pants are made of purple silk.

Humpty's monocle is from a little eyeglass repair kit. It's a magnifying glass. His staff is a chopstick with a jewel on the end.

Humpty's egg body is made out of a cotton fabric and stuffed firmly with polyester batting.

Humpty's hair is a piece of faux fur that's been shaped and held with a little hair spray.

Humpty's face is soft sculpted and colored with soft pastels and colored pencils. I made his eyes out of clay and hand painted them.

Humpty's fingers are wired so he can be posed to hold items.

Humpty's little faux leather shoes have felt bottoms and a little bling on them. His socks are gold print tulle. He's such a handsome fellow!

Oh Marie!

Everybody knows Marie Antoinette and loves her over decorated fluff and frilly style. You can't out girly Marie! There's been some debate whether or not she actually said, "Let them eat cake!" but I like cake so let the cake flow.

I used a few die cuts from Anna Griffin and I hand dyed the ribbon tie. That gorgeous little shoe is a paper clip.

Pretty cake and fans are a great look for Marie.

This gorgeous shoe is from a 14 year old pattern made by Terri Heinz when she held a Marie shoe swap on Ning with the Marie Antoinette mail art group. I was there and a member. I also did participate in the swap at that time. That's how I remember it!!! There have been many imitations of her pattern since but I cannot find one to pre-date it so I'm calling Terri Heinz the designer of this pattern.

Those cute little cake die cuts!. 

I had several pictures of Marie courtesy of thegraphicsfairy.com . I wanted to fill the pages with them.

I decided to make little frames out of bling for Marie on most of the pictures because I didn't have room for framing them without cutting off the pictures.  Problem solved!

I used a lot of pretty pictures to decorate this journal. I had some fan die cuts already made so I used those. Perfect for Marie.

Pictures of pretty fancy ladies dancing go well with the decorative shoes and fans.

Pretty lace trims make pretty frames for pictures.

Oh Marie, you've done it again! Left us in awe of your over decorated beauty! You scamp you.

 

Another Valentine's Journal

I'm running a little behind but here it is. I made three Valentine's journals and this is the last one. I used a lot of vintage postcard images on this one.

I picked the prettiest postcard for the front. I used a satin ribbon for the tie closure.

I loved the double heart postcard so I put it on a doily over two pages. I trimmed some pages out with pink lace and matching paper washi tape.

I used a folded paper border around the big cupid heart and found some felt love stickers that were precut.

I cut out some origami hearts with pictures underneath them and put little felt heart pull tabs on a string for them.

I had some sequined ribbon that I used on the length of a few pages.

Vintage valentines with pink ricrac and satin bows trimmed with pearls.

More beautiful vintage postcards. I pulled out all the stops on this one. I glued a metal "love" charm to the front of the ribbon and added a cluster of hand made charms to the top corner and it turned out pretty I think.

 

Domino Books Are Back

I made a bunch of these years ago and I'm still in love with them. The are so tiny and cute. I bring them out and look at them often especially since Valentines Day is coming up and I have a few pretty little books. 

I get my graphics off of Etsy and the graphicsfairy for most of these. And I have some that may not be available now because I got them several years ago but if you do a search for digital domino graphics you should find more than a few.

I used scrap pieces on these and got my dominos from the dollar store years ago. They probably don't make them like this any more... or maybe they still do. I don't know since I haven't shopped for them in quite a while. You want the regular sized ones for these books but I know they make a tiny size of them for crafting.

These are so quick and easy to make. They are also a stress buster if you need a quick get away from a lengthy project. There are still some tutorials for making these so I won't get into how they are made.

I have so many of these, I could publish one a week for almost a year! I don't do anything by halves. I'm usually all in on a project when I decide what to make.

A little sampling of my collection. I have dozens more.

The Never-Ending or Endless Card

Remember when these were going around about 12 years ago? Were you crafting back then? We thought they were so so magical! This tutorial makes it easy!