How To Make A Pop-Up Birthday Cake Card

I have a confession. I used to buy birthday cards from the store without a great deal of planning. Back then, I would stop in to pick up a gift bag and birthday card as almost an after-thought to the present. I know — crazy, right, But now that I have a Cricut cutting machine, I can make these gorgeous, handmade cards that are fun, thoughtful, and really not-so-hard. I’ve given my butterfly card, fairy house card, apple tree card, and coffee cup gift card holder cards all as birthday cards in the past few months. But I decided it was time to design something just for birthdays, so I’ve made a pop-up birthday cake card! What I love about my birthday cake card — and what I hope you’ll love, too — is how it actually pops up into a round, two-layer cake … complete with candles!

It’s like something magical from Harry Potter. So you can put it in an envelope, mail it off to a friend, and they’ll open it up to see a wonderful little cake. Alas, it doesn’t smell like chocolate or taste like funfetti — I’ll let you figure out how to do that. Here’s the pop-up birthday cake card in action … isn’t it cool, In this tutorial, I will show you exactly how you can make a pop-up birthday cake card. I offer three different ways to make your cake sides for different effects, including how you can use ribbon instead of cardstock.

You’ll only need a few pieces of cardstock to make this card happen. This pop-up birthday cake card design is FREE. If you like it, please consider sharing them with your friends on Facebook or Pinterest (there are sharing buttons at the top of the post). My compensation is seeing people make my designs and being happy. Do you like to make 3D paper crafting projects, too, Share and leave a comment below! Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. Read my full disclosure policy. First, cut out your pieces from cardstock. My design is in three separate SVG files and all of these files have score lines on the very top layer. Download my files, unzip the folder, go to Cricut Design Space (if you’re using a Cricut), click Upload, locate the files, and upload/place them.

Now ungroup each file, select the first layer in each file, and change it from Cut to Score. Once that is done, attach the Score Layer to the next layer below. Do this for all three of the files. This ensures you keep the Score layer with the Cut layer. Once that is complete, you can click Make It and proceed to cutting. With your cardstock cut out, it’s time to assemble the cake! Now let me walk you through each step. First, fold your cake support just as I’ve shown in the photo below. The two tabs on the side get folded in, along with the tab on the bottom.

Next, fold your cake rounds (both large and small) just as I’ve shown below. The narrow strips fold down to become supports for the sides of your cake. You also fold your cake rounds in to a V-shape, to allow them to fold easier when you close your card. Now slide your cake support up through the bottom of your large round cake, through the slot in the middle. Then open up the tabs on the side of the cake support. Next, put your small cake round on top over the tab at the top of the cake support, and slide the side supports into the slots on the top of the large cake round. Glue the tabs of the side supports to the bottom of the large cake round, as shown below.