Michele's Arts Realm: Hello Kitty Pop-Up Fashion Runway

Hiya, folks! It's funny that I suddenly take a keen interest in arts and crafts. I was a member of the Arts club back in elementary school and secondary school but I never knew I got so enthusiastic in trying something new in arts. Do-It-Yourself arts and crafts is actually fun and challenging, and I recommend aspiring artists to try creating something on your own without any tutorials from Google or Youtube. You'll challenge your creative mind to make a whole new product out of something like recyclable materials (papers, boxes etc.). You can experiment with procedures, materials, and decorations to make the process work and the product looks "complete". Anyway, my first DIY project is this crazy pop-up box (kind of like a handmade jack-in-the-box). And since I have this stack of Hello Kitty sketches with me, I use them as the pop-up figures. The sketches were drawn back when I was a freshman in secondary school (2006) and they're still good as new! I don't want to throw them away so I cut them to make them into 2D figures and stick them onto folded and taped paper stands.

One of my 2D Hello Kitty figures on a paper stand.

I know the cutouts don't look tidy enough but I try not to cut over the lines...
If you want to try making a pop-up box, all you need are a box (a shoe box or any box that has enough space to put a number of pop-up figures), a pair of scissors, old magazines or newspapers (I use UBC magazines because the landscapes as the pages' backgrounds are pretty XD), cardboard or manilla card, plain or colourful duct tapes, stapler, a long ribbon, and a number of sketches to make the figures.

First, dress up the box with the magazines/ newspapers. Make sure the pages that are cut fit well onto the top, bottom, and sides of the box. Seal them up with duct tape and keep wrapping the box up until it's fully covered.
Next. cut out as many little (not too small!) rectangles as you think you  need from cardboard or manilla card. Fold them into 3D triangles and seal the two ends with duct tape. You've made pop-up stands!

I don't know whether you can see the Hello Kitty figure on the left (next to the one with the pink coat). The triangular stand is what you should make.

When you finish making the stands (don't worry if you don't make enough, you still can make some more once you've counted the number of sketches you have), cut out the sketches to make them look "alive" in 2D. Cut the blank areas away, the drawings' bodies are all you need.

After that, stick the stands onto the base of the box first. Use duct tape to stick the stands against the base, make sure you tape the front and back of each stand and one of the triangular surfaces has to face forward! This is to help maintain the balance of the figures! Here's one suggestion: you can first tape one stand onto the base of the box, and then tape a figure onto it (stick a tape at the back of the figure, the bottom is the best place to stick a part of the tape so that it sticks to the stand and it helps the figure to stand up). If the figure is standing up, you're good to continue with the rest. There are times when some figures don't seem to stand up. That's okay, you can fix up the figures' postures by adding more tape to the stands or a little bit higher at the back of the figure down to the base. You can also try to adjust the triangular shapes of the stands if you want.

One Hello Kitty figures is hiding behind the one with the rose shirt XD..

You can stick more pop-up figures on the inner lid of the box or even on the flaps (if possible) The picture above is little Hello Kitty figures on one of the flaps of the sides of the box. You can add more figures on other parts of the box to make your product more detailed and presentable. ;)

And lastly, (this is optional, if you want to be more creative), you can decorate the box with a theme. I plan to make this display into a fashion show, so I cut the middle area of the base to make a "door". It's actually a red carpet for the Hello Kitty models to walk on.

To make this opening, cut the middle area as shown above and cut through the wrapped paper that is preventing you from cutting through the area of the box entirely. Find a solution to cover the gap, such as covering it up with a strip of paper and colour it with a marker pen. Use your scissors to poke two holes on the door (one on top left and top right) and another two holes at the top ends next to the holes of the door.

Hello Kitty models "squished" backstage" XD.

Make sure the holes are big enough to fit your ribbon through. Slip the ribbon from one hole next to the door and then through the hole on the door. Pull the ribbon to the back of the door and slip it into the other hole of the door, and then pull it to the back and through the last hole. Make sure the length of the ribbon is even, measure it by comparing approximately from both ends. Finally, staple both ends of the ribbon with the stapler. Yes, this sounds weird but it works. The staples help to block the ribbon ends from slipping off the holes! Trust me, it works like paper clips! Oh! And when you want to close the door, just grab hold on the staples and pull the ribbon back to its position. The door will close like a drawbridge.

Hello Kitty models on the red carpet. The two ends of the ribbon helps to open and close the "door".

 

So I hope you enjoy reading this blog post and maybe you got inspired to do one! This is actually fun, I spent the whole day doing this! This is actually a trial for me because I have an interview coming up to volunteer at Coquitlam Community Centre or Poirer Community Centre in Arts, Crafts, and Hobbies. So I'm thinking of brainstorming some craft ideas to teach kids or something. My next project is going to be a handmade notebook made out of cardboard boxes! So stay tuned if you want more of Michele's Arts Realm!