Popup Surprise

I'm full of new techniques lately!  After playing around with the quilling technique on my last card, I made this cutie for a friend's birthday recently.  

The simple cover belies the surprise inside...

It's only when you open up the card that you realize it is a cool popup card!

Here's how I made it:

I cut out short strips of coordinating stripe-y paper and glued them in layers in the middle of the inside of the plain white inner layer of the card...

I then used a paper blade knife to cut slits at the top and bottom of each layer...

I then folded the layers inwards so that the closed card looked like this...

And here is what the card looks like after I open it back up...

Then, I glued the entire white inner layer to the teal/green outer layer, and stamped and cut out little bows to stick on the tops of each present.

And here is the finished inside again, just because I love the popuppiness of the stacked gifts.  The cheerful colors make me happy, too.

Next time, I think I will use the same technique to make a tiered birthday cake!