Origami Christmas Card
Materials needed:
One blank A-4 card (4 ½” x 5 ½”) with envelope
One piece of red or green card stock or construction paper 4 ½” x 5 ½ ”
Five pieces of origami paper. One piece should be 3” square. The second should be 2 ½”square; the third should be 2” square; the last two should be 1 ½” and 1” respectively.
Bone folder
Edge punch or scissors that make a decorative cut
PVA glue
Embellishments: (e.g. stick-on jewels, stick-on letters, etc.)
Procedure:
1. With an edge punch or sculpting scissors, make a decorative edge on the piece of red or green card stock. Alternatively, you can tear a thin strip off of the card stock, so that it has an irregular border. Glue the card stock to the card.
2. Fold the 3” piece of origami paper in half. Run a bone folder along the folded edge.
3. Fold the paper again lengthwise, so that you have a square. Run the bone folder over the crease.
4. Unfold the paper. Bring the botton right corner to meet the top left corner. Run the bone folder over the crease.
5. Repeat step four with the bottom left corner meeting the top right corner.
6. Unfold the paper. Fold it in half once again. You should now have a rectangular shape with two diagonal lines running from the bottom corners to the center top.
7. Grasp the right side of the fold at the top and pull it down and in, so that it meets the center line at the bottom of the rectangle.
8. Repeat on the left side. You will now have a triangle with two layers.
9. Take the bottom right corner of the top triangle and fold it down so that its folded edge meets the mid-line of the top layer.
10. Repeat on the left side of the top layer.
11. Repeats steps 1-9 with the other four squares of origami paper.
12. Lay the five folded squares of origami paper on the surface of the card stock with the smallest piece at the top and the largest at the bottom.
13. Place the apex of the 1 ½ “piece of paper inside the second layer of the 1” piece and glue it into place.
14. Place the apex of the 2” piece inside the second layer of the 1 ½ inch piece and glue it into place and so on, until you have formed a Christmas tree.
15. Glue the tree to the card.
16. Embellish the tree with jewels or glitter if you wish.
17. Decorate the inside of the card. I used the tailings from the edge punch as an embellishment, but you could use Japanese characters for PEACE or HAPPINESS or GOOD FORTUNE instead.
