Iris Folding
"Iris Folding is a paper craft technique that involves folding strips of colored paper in such a way to form a design. The center of the design forms... -- a shape reminiscent of the iris of an eye of of a camera lens. Wikipedia"
Making a card with the Iris Folding Technique gives you a spectacular result! If you have never made a card using this paper folding technique, it looks a lot more complicated than it actually is. It's easy to learn how to do this. In this example, I have used a square shaped aperture, but there are many other patterns. I will provide a link to some for you at the bottom of the page. Get ready to 'wow' someone! You will need: - A card blank that you can cut a window aperture in
- A craft knife and cutting board or a large square punch
- A plain piece of cardstock to punch or cut a slightly smaller square aperture from to use as a frame inside the main aperture
- A square pattern for your folds
- Repositionable adhesive for the pattern
- Adhesive for the paper strips
- Some clear packing tape for the completed design
- Some backing paper or cardstock for the completed aperture
- Four different types of thin paper to make your folds (or you can use unfolded cardstock, ribbons, origami paper, etc - as long as it is thin) in contrasting or coordinating colours and/or patterns
- A bone folder can be handy if you are going to be folding your strips of paper
What to do:
- Cut or punch your main aperture, and make a smaller aperture from the second piece of cardstock. Adhere the two layers together
- Position the pattern over the right side of the aperture so you can see it from the wrong side. Use the non permanent adhesive to fix the pattern in place
- Cut 1" strips out of the thin paper (or 1/2" strips of cardstock) - four of each colour. Fold the 1" papers in half and make sharp creases of the folds with the bone folder. You can use ink to edge the 1/2" piece strips of cardstock if you like. Glue the fold in the paper strips so they lie flat
- Using the pattern guide, start placing the strips of paper around your aperture and adhere them in place. Trim the ends of the paper to a reasonable length
- You can keep going till you completely fill the aperture, or stop short of filling it and place a special image in the middle (like a small picture or a stamped image), or glitter paper or other embellishment
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Other ideas - Use foils or glittery papers in your design
- Try using origami papers or rice papers to make your paper folds
- Incorporate Iris Folding into your scrapbook pages or off the page projects
- Use embossing powder on the edges of the paper folds to add interest, or stamp and emboss the stamped images as I have done in the series of Iris Fold Fan Cards in the slide show at the top of the page.
If you have tried this technique and have a project to share, please do:
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Do you make greeting cards? Please do share it with me.
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