Paper craft · Challenge · about 45 minutes
Pull-Tab Swimming Fish Card
Uses scissors · Uses glue · Adult help suggested
- Card stock printed with sheet 1 (front panel, fish, connector), 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Card stock printed with sheet 2 (back panel, slider, guides), 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Blunt-tip scissors
- Glue stick
- Ruler (to check the scale bar)
For the grown-up: Help cut the slot: it is cut from a fold, and the long cut must stay on the line. Check that no glue reaches the slider before the card is pressed together.
Safety: Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.
Blue dashes: valley fold (toward you). Pink dash-dot: mountain fold (away from you). Thick line with scissors: cut. Yellow: glue.
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Start. Print both sheets at 100% (Actual size) on card stock. Check that each 5 cm bar measures 5 cm.
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1. Cut: Cut out every piece: the front panel, fish and connector from sheet 1; the back panel, slider and two guide strips from sheet 2.
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2. Cut: Bend the front panel along the dashed line through the slot. From the fold, cut out the slot rectangle, then open the panel flat.
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3. Valley fold: Fold each guide strip in half along its long dashed line, so it is twice as thick.
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4. Glue: Glue the two folded guides onto the yellow bands of the back panel, along the top and bottom of the slider path.
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5. Glue: Fold the connector in half. Glue one half onto the marked spot on the slider, with the fold at the top edge of the spot.
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6. Place: Lay the slider in the channel between the guides, PULL end sticking out on the right. Stand the connector's free half straight up.
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7. Glue: Rub glue on the guides only. Lay the front panel on top so the connector comes up through the slot, and press.
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8. Valley fold: Fold the connector's free half down over the bottom edge of the slot. It now clips around the slot.
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9. Glue: Rub glue on the connector's front half only and press the fish onto it. Keep glue off the card itself.
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10. Pull: Pull the PULL tab: the fish swims across the sea. Push the tab back in and it swims home.
If something goes wrong
- The slider sticks. Glue may have reached it. Pull it out gently while the glue is wet, or trim a little off its top and bottom edges so it runs freely.
- The fish catches on the card. Glue the fish to the connector only, and check that the fish does not touch the slot edges with glue.
- The connector pulls off the slider. Glue its whole back half to the marked spot and let it dry before you test the card.
- The slider comes all the way out. The connector must clip around the slot edge: the slot ends then stop it. Refold the connector over the bottom of the slot.