Waterfall Mechanism
Waterfall cards (and ATCs!) are currently quite popular and there are various sets of instructions and templates around the web for people who want to learn how to make them. Some of these appear to me to be overly complicated, and so I came up with my own simplified version.
So here's my Craft Robo A4 sized template which fits nicely onto an A5 (A4 folded) card:
and an image of the assembled mechanism:
- You cut out the template and five equal sized squares. Hold the mechanism with the long strip uppermost and at the topmost red dotted line fold it down behind itself, making sure you've got a good crease. Go to the next dotted line and again fold down behind, and repeat this for all the folds.
- Attach the folded mechanism to your card at the ends of the T shape with brads or double sided tape.
- Decorate each of the individual squares then add a strip double sided tape to the back of the square at the top, and add the first one to the mechanism so that the top is level with the bottom fold. Next piece of card is attached level with the top of the next fold up, and so on.
- Now you can pull the tab at the bottom and the mechanism will pull the squares up, round and then down behind so you see the designs on each one in turn as they rotate. Push the tab and they'll come back up and down again.
And you're done!
A free Craft Robo waterfall template is available to download.
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