Pop Up Cow Card

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If you love a cow pun – “I LOVE MOO” or “Holy Cow, It’s Your Birthday” or want to make a card for someone in the Year of the Ox… we have just the Pop Up Card Project for you…. Learn how to make a Pop Up Cow Card today. More Cow Crafts coming soon!

3d Cow Card Pop Up - Birthday Card

We haven’t made a pop up card for a while.. in fact our Bear Heart Pop Up cards, where probably the last ones we made. But with a birthday coming up in our house.. a new pop up card was needed. Luckily, Pip Squeak, reminded me of Red Ted’s LOVE of cows. Yes, a rather random love affair! But it did provide me with the opportunity to make a new 3d Pop Up Cow Card design.. and share it with you!

So in our case it is very much a “Holy Cow, It is your Birthday!” card.. But if you switch out the colours, you could easily turn this into a fabulous Valentine’s Day Cow Card with the “I love Moo” pun. Or make your cow in browns or reds and it would be a great Year of the Ox Pop Up Card too!

Pop Up Cow Card – Materials

Easy Pop Up Cow Card with fun cow puns

This cow pop up card is a little bigger than my “usual” A6 cards. Mainly because I didn’t want the folds to be fiddly. But you can make this bigger or smaller. The process is the same. But for this reason the “base” paper is A4 in size, rather than A5 (U.S. paper sizes work fine too!).

  • White or brown paper for the cow (one sheet of A4 used carefully will make the head, body and tail + clouds to decorate)
  • Piece of A4 card in the desired colour (we used light blue)
  • Extra paper for the speech bubble to go on the front
  • Green paper scraps for grass/ decorating
  • Scraps for anything else (e.g. you may like to add bees and butterflies or some hearts if making a Cow Valentine’s Day Card)

Watch the 3d Cow Card DIY Video

How to make a Pop Up Cow Card

So as you can see in the video.. though I had most of the cow card mapped out in my head.. I do “wing it” a little as I go along. But that is the hole point of this website.. right? I figure it out, so you can repeat quickly and easily? And ahem.. sometimes my filming isn’t totally “centred”. That is mainly because this card is so much bigger.. argh. But you can still see how it is all made. Just bear with me. I am human!

Making all your 3d Cow Card parts

Begin by cutting your A4 sheet of paper in half to make two sheets of A5 paper. One will be used for the head and clouds, the other for the body and tail.

Fold the A5 sheet in paper in half length wise. And draw half a cow face on it – it is like a flattened egg shape with an ear.

Cut out.

About 1/3 of the way from the bottom of the face, make a fold (see image).

Make a second fold that meats the same point. When you unfold the cow’s face, you can poke this fold to pop “inside”. This will shape the Cow’s muzzle. It will also make sure that the nose doesn’t stick out of the card (as you will see later in the video).

Colour in your cows head – muzzle, ears, eyes and and patches.

Make a body – this is a slightly elongated semi circle with black spots. And colour in and cut out a tail too. Cut out some horns in contrasting colours (in the video I actually forgot these and only remembered to add them at the very end!!).

Now cut out any extras such as grass and clouds.

Time to assemble your pop up cow card

Fold the body in half, add glue and position in the centre of the card (which you have folded first to make an A5 card).

Glue the grass and tail in place too. Trim the grass if necessary.

Add glue to the centre fold of the cow’s nose. And fold the nose to go in.

Add glue to the ears and glue in place – making sure the crease down the centre of the face is aligned with the card’s back. Wiggle a little to make sure it is position well before patting down. Pop the nose “in” so it doesn’t pop out of the card.

Glue the horns in place.

Finishing touches to your pop up cow card

Now write your card’s message in a speech bubble. I find it easier to write the words first and then draw a speech bubble round it.

You can write a cow pun such as these:

  • Holy Cow, It is your Birthday/ You passed your exam/ You are 21 etc
  • I Love Moo
  • I love you very MOOch
  • Happy Year of the Ox
  • Have an udderly great birthday/ day
  • Moo-cas Grass-ias
  • Herd it’s your birthday
  • Legend DAIRY
  • You have MOOved

Draw a speech bubble around, cut it out and stick on the front of your card.

Done. Your DIY Pop Up Cow Card with lots of moo-velous puns is finished!!

You can use it as a Pop Up Birthday Card, quirky Valentine’s Day Card for Chinese New Year too! Woohoo.

See all our Pop Up Card Projects here:

Easy Pop Up Card Projects for Kids - learn the basic techniques and design your own!

More Cow Crafts for Kids coming soon!

You may also love this rather adorable Pop Up Dog Ear Card by MMMCrafts.