8-bit pop up card

Reader Submission for the Pinstrosiversary Challenge:

8-bit Valentine’s Card (http://pinterest.com/pin/492088696754278094/)

(from http://www.minieco.co.uk/valentines-day-pixely-popup-card/)

I first saw Kate’s 8-bit pop-up cards (http://www.minieco.co.uk/8-bit-popup-cards/) on Pinterest and marked the post as something I might want to make for my gamer boyfriend at some point.  I found the heart-shaped pattern about a month before Valentine’s Day and knew immediately what my card was going to be for this year. 

(inspiration photo)

Although I’m not much of a gamer myself (I never had a system as a kid, but loved me some Tetris and Rodent’s Revenge), my boyfriend and I watched the Zelda-inspired webseries “The Legend of Neil” together.  My initial thought was to reference its line following Link/Neil receiving a heart (health) cookie for the first time: “You deserve it after committing murder.”  Not entirely sure how I would’ve done that (“…of my heart!”?), but it totally would have worked.  Anyway, my ideal way of doing that would have been to dismantle a talking/singing greeting card of the recordable variety, which appear to be either in hiding or close to extinction, because I have yet to see one.  Soooo, my message changed a bit, but I think it worked out for the better.

(I downloaded the font “Return of Ganon” from this site: http://www.zeldauniverse.net/typography-and-fonts/)

As for the actual construction of the card, I printed out the template (the file has two to a sheet, very smart) and practiced on one of them while watching Hoarders and Oddities.  I was using cardstock for the actual insert, and wasn’t sure how well it would go though the printer, so I taped the already-cut-out template over a sheet of cardstock and cut through it.  I used a pushpin to make the scoring marks, then began the folding process, following the directions as I had for the trial run, but having a decidedly tougher time because the paper was so much stiffer and I had missed the bottommost scoring mark (I scored it once I noticed).  In the end, there ended up being a visible crease near the top of each bump of the heart, which was annoying but not enough to make me want to redo the whole thing. 

 Also, the glue oozed out a bit when I was gluing on the text, but considering that the alternative that I’d originally considered (cutting out the individual letters from white paper) would have been much more labor- and time-intensive and probably even messier, I could deal with it.  Though it’s not pictured, I also added some pixelated confetti made from both leftover red cardstock and shiny red ribbon. 

(the symbols say “I love you” in Sarif Hylian, also downloaded from zeldauniverse.net)

And I just heard from my boyfriend, who sounded very pleased and said the confetti exploded everywhere when he opened the card.  Now he’s off to decipher the handwritten note I enclosed in Hylian J. 

So, I just took forever long to say that the card’s not as perfect as I would have liked, but it seems to have served its purpose well.