Pop Up Greeting: Star

I was asked to make something for a guy by his wife for his birthday. She wanted something that he can have at work for his table. The thing that came to my mind was the pop up book/folder/frame watchamacallit.

The original colour scheme she gave me was blue, white and black, and he likes planes. But when I saw the photo she provided the colours won't flow, and my other dilemma was how am I going to make planes work for me?

To cut a long story short, I went with stars, like he's the star in his family eyes, yeah I thought, that'll work.

Going with the blue gold base and echoing the red from the photo's background, the gold stars popping up against it was just fantastic.

The client loved it, the husband loved it and I was told it's sitting proudly on top of the mantle at home, he dare not risk bringing it to work and have it ruined. More pictures can be found here.

It just occurred to me that every time I make something like this it's always for a birthday...

There's one for Muji

There's one for Her Majesty...

I wonder when will the next birthday request be from and to whom, I quite enjoy making them. I can picture this for anniversaries as well, that would be nice...

All That White and Red II

This was a commission from a dear lady, who asked me to make a book from her son's wedding pictures. It was a mixture of portrait and landscape shots which she had selected and had printed out. I didn't want to do just a regular book and the pictures were beautiful and I felt it would be a shame to just keep it in a book only to open when you want to see it. Since the pictures were about 8 by 12 inches, I told her that I would make the book into a concertina so that not only can they keep it as a book but also able to pull it out as a display.

In theory it was a good idea.

I just had to find the courage to make it.

I'm glad I went with my gut instincts. Here's one of the two books I made.

The book when closed

I kept the front simple, with details coming from the sash of satin organza ribbon across with the bow and little red roses hanging from skinny white satin ribbons with silver details on the side. I used chiffon with silver dots throughout the book to add sparkle and glitter.

Book partially opened

As you can see, it opens up like a regular book with pictures of a beautiful wedding couple. The bride was so pretty and her dress was beautiful, I used her as the inspiration for the books.

Book/Album when opened and displayed

I used the red roses on ribbons at the side as accents and they add colour as well as pick out the bouquet of red roses the bride has. Took me several hours just to put those roses on. In total for the three books I used almost 80 roses.

The pictures are recessed so even when shut they do not touch each other and are not glued down. The only thing that's holding them in place are the ribbons at the corners. That way they can choose to move the pictures around or change it for a different set of images.

The landscape version is the same as well, only when you stretch it all out, they better have enough table space for it.

All in all, the client and husband was blown away when I presented the books. She was so happy I got an extra tight hug from her when she was saying thank you. The books have flown off to Europe as Christmas presents for the wedding couple, and I hope that they feel the same way as their parents did when I presented them the books.

1st Valentine's Artist Book

If you want to read my rambling on how the book was made, go here. For more images of the pages in the book go here. For the short version of the story, read on...

Here are some images taken by my wonderful sweetie of the valentine present I gave him. Conceptually this was conceived back in December, mulled over in January, planned out in February, and physical form hashed out in a week just because D day was coming up fast.



The wrapper I used to wrap the book was from the first bouquet of roses he gave to me in the beginning of the relationship. It' was a conscious decision to use it to wrap up my present to him. The significance and meaning behind it, I'm like that. Yes, I saved it all these while waiting for the opportunity to use it.


This is the book, size dimension is 10cm by 10cm, I actually planned the cover to be something else but it would require the cover to not be stuck down yet, but my hands had automatically glued it up and pressed the cover down before I could remember and whacked myself in the head and had to think up of something else to put on the cover as I continued to finish the book. Mental note: do covers last last last!!


I'm not too sure if this is how a star book is suppose to be when close, a wedge. Is it? I have never seen an actual star book before so...


Here's the book, partially opened, see all the punched out hearts, stars and teddy bears I stuck on around the windows, took me a whole afternoon just to do that. But well worth it. I love the effect it creates.


This is page one of six pages in the book. Each page consists of a selected quote from the many text messages we sent to each other since the beginning of the relationship. The tiny red heart highlights a key word in all of them. The white heart pop up component was stuck on after I glued the covers down. It was most difficult to do. Mental note II: do covers last last last!! (ooh, I hear an echo...)


Top view of the star book, I like how the whole thing looks structurally. Especially how the pop ups crosses through the black middle layer, that was a bitch to stick in. And the fact that the initial adhesive I used came off after spending another whole afternoon just creating the pop up components and sticking them into the book. And I had to redo them quick using another type of adhesive and just managed to stick the last bit in before his car pulled up, thank god... Mental note III: use a very strong adhesive when gluing pop up components.

All in all, it's a pretty good prototype I must say. Now I know what works and what didn't and how to improve on the next one. I'll probably attempt another, just need to work out a content is all. The valentine theme leaned itself perfectly for this. I love this holiday, just because it contains all the things I like!

Since I have decided this is going to be an annual tradition, I'm already thinking of the design for the next valentine book he's going to get!