Chibitronics Lights Up #PopUpTober!

What is #PopUpTober?

This fall, Chibitronics will be collaborating with @5am_popup, during his annual #PopUpTober Instagram challenge!

PopUpTober is a daily pop-up art challenge throughout the month of October, an annual event devised by author-illustrator, pop-up and book artist Keith Allen.

One Call – 31 Prompts

Starting back in October of 2019, Keith, a Senior Designer at @amgreetings, has been sending a clarion call to the world’s paper engineers, inviting them to bring out their scissors, glue, and paper, to make their creations pop!

The call, a highly anticipated list of 31 prompts—one for each day of the month—invites a mix of aspiring and seasoned paper engineers to create and share pop-up spreads using the hashtag #PopUpTober.

In the five years that have followed, interest in the event has exploded!

Now, eager paper enthusiasts wait with bated breath for the newest prompts to be released (usually in early September). Then, come October, participants from around the world begin creating, commenting, and building upon one another’s brilliance, each contributing as much (or as little) as they are able. And some people are equally happy to watch the spectacle unfold (and pop)!

#LightUpPopUpTober

This October, we (@Chibitronics) are inviting everyone within our ecosystem of paper crafters and makers to join @5am_popup with an additional challenge—to add light to one or more of Keith’s pop-up prompts, and share their #LightUpPopUp with us on Instagram!

By piggy-backing off of Keith’s fun challenge, we’re hoping to generate interest in both paper mechanics and paper circuitry—although participants are invited to integrate and share any number of clever light-up strategies.

Since #PopUpTober can be a bit demanding for a single person to do in its entirety, Chibitronics will be participating as a #LightUpPopUpTober team to collectively address each of the 31 prompts. Each volunteer will be creating something for one prompt, allowing us to have new light-up, pop-up examples to share on our Instagram feed for each day of the challenge.

Follow or Join the Challenge

So far, our team includes a variety of volunteers from a mix of backgrounds, including educators, makers, members of our Design Team, and a star-studded line-up of paper crafters and pop-up engineers!

In addition to Keith (@5am_popup) and our own Jie Qi, our team will be joined by an esteemed cohort of paper engineers that include Simon Arizpe, Seth Berg, APRL Capalungan, Bruce Foster, Helen Friel, Yoojin Kim, and Kumpei SHINDO!

And, since this challenge is open to anyone who wishes to participate, we’re cordially inviting YOU to join the fun, by creating as many #LightUpPopUps as you can and tagging and mentioning us on social media.

Guidelines and Rules

Here are the rules for #LightUpPopUpTober!

Prompts for #PopUpTober and #LightUpPopUpTober will be published in early September, so stay tuned!

Find #PopUpTober Information & Inspiration

For a quick reference, please visit our #LightUpPopUpTober resource page, which we’ll be updating throughout the months of September and October. There, you’ll find the daily prompts, tutorials, templates, and plenty of light-up pop-up inspiration to help you get started with our own creations!

Bonus!

As an added bonus, #LightUpPopUpTober participants in the continental United States will have their names added to a drawing, for a chance to win a Craft with Light Kit in white or colors! (No purchase necessary).

Participants who let us know that they are an educator or librarian will also have a chance to win a soon-to- be-published copy of Ryan Jenkin’s upcoming book, The Tinkering Workshop (coming out on 15 October 2024)!

And to get you stocked up for the #PopUpTober event, we’re offering a special 10% discount during the month of September on select products including LED stickers, Craft with Light kits, circuit tape, and more!

Use the code POPUP at checkout to save!