Hello and welcome to 'Craft with Sarah'.
In this video you're going to learn how to
iris fold! To make this iris folding watering can you will need the free iris
folding pattern available from www.craftwithsarah.com printed onto regular
printer paper, a cutting mat to protect your surface, scissors, a pencil, a craft
knife, some masking tape, sticky tape, an A5 card blank, a piece of white card
slightly smaller than your card blank, double-sided sticky tape and finally,
strips of folded colored paper in up to four different colors.
First, cut out the
large watering can pattern. Take your white card and turn it over so that the
back of the card is facing up. I'm using hammered-effect card so the back of my
card is the smooth unfinished side. Place the iris folding pattern into the middle
of the white card. Using a pencil, carefully draw around the edge of the
pattern. Try not to move the pattern around when you're drawing as you want
to draw a smooth, accurate outline of the iris folding pattern. It's a little bit
hard to see on the video, but I've now got the watering can shape drawn onto
the back of my white card. Hopefully if I wiggle the card a bit you'll be able to
see. Place a cutting mat on your table to protect your work surface.
I like to use a rotating blade craft knife to cut out iris folding shapes.
The blade turns as you cut which makes it really easy to cut smooth shapes and
wave the knife around the outline. Carefully cut around the pencil line
you've just drawn with your craft knife. I like to move the card around so that
I'm always cutting towards myself. This puts less stress on the blade of the
craft knife so it's less likely to snap or to tear your card. When you're done,
pop the shape out of your card and leave it to one side. We won't be using that
cutout shape; what we need is the window cutout, also known as an aperture.
Remove your cutting mat and place the iris folding pattern onto your work
surface. Use a couple of small pieces of masking tape to secure the pattern to
your work surface so it won't move about when you do your folding. Place your
cutout on top of the pattern and line it up so that the cutout in the card
matches the shape of the pattern. Use some more masking tape to secure the
card. Make sure you only put a small amount on the white card as you'll be
using most of the space on the back to stick your colored paper strips to.
Next, prepare your paper strips. Thin paper, wrapping paper or even florist's
ribbon are all great choices for iris folding strips. It doesn't matter if your
strips have jagged edges from where you've cut them out. Fold the strips in
half to get a nice crisp clean fold. You could use a bone folder to enhance the
crease but if you don't have one (like I don't1) then just make sure you run your
finger all the way down the crease. For this pattern I'm using four different
colors of paper - one for each of the spirals inside the pattern.
Place the strips around the edge of your card. I like to position the colors
on the sides the pattern that I'll be using them on which makes it easier to
pick up the right color when I'm doing the fold. To make it even easier you can
color the pattern with the color of the paper strips that you intend to use for
each section. Imagine the pattern as a spiral with
four different swirls inside. If you're using four colors, color each swirl with
the appropriate color as I'm doing here. Note that the handle of the watering can
belongs to the top spiral which is why I've colored it in red. Now you're ready
to start iris folding! Find the fold on the pattern marked with the number 1.
Cut a strip of your colored paper that is just longer than the fold on the pattern.
Place the strip over the pattern so that the creased line of your strip sits
along the straight line next to the number 1 fold. Use sticky tape to
secure the paper strip to the white card. You'll probably find that some of your
paper strip goes over the space in the white card between the handle and the
main part of the watering can. You'll need to get rid of this overlap
by folding the paper strips that it doesn't encroach on any of the other
fold lines and then cut off the excess. Use another bit of sticky tape to hold
down the edges of the strip you've just cut. Do exactly the same process for
number 2 on your pattern. Take your paper strip, cut it to size,
place the creased edge along the next fold line on the iris folding pattern
and then secure it to the white card with sticky tape. Again, you may need to
fold the tape paper strip to stop it overlapping the main part of the
watering can.
Keep going along the rest of the pattern, following the folds in numerical order.
You can place sticky tape on top of the paper strips you've already
secured but make sure the sticky tape doesn't get outside the edge of the
white card as you don't want to end up accidentally sticking your card to your
work surface! However, it doesn't matter if your paper strips go outside the edge
of the card as you can trim these once the folding is complete. When you get to
fold 11 you'll need to switch over to the next color.
The folding works in exactly the same way as the first color. If your card
starts to get a little bit bulky with all the paper strips, use a longer piece
of tape to help stick the strips down a little bit flatter. Don't be tempted
to turn your card over and take a sneaky look at the front before you've finished.
It's really hard to line everything up again if you move it during folding,
which is why we used masking tape at the beginning to keep the white card in
position. Traditionally, the square in the middle of the pattern is covered with holographic or
metallic paper so that it looks like the shiny iris in the middle of the camera.
Now personally, I don't really like this effect because the holographic
paper doesn't match with the rest of the design and I think it just looks a
little bit strange, so instead I like to tie the middle square in so that it
matches the rest of the card. To do this, choose one of your paper
strip colors and place it diagonally across the square
to leave behind a triangle of empty space. Choose the color from the opposite
side of the pattern and stick a piece of it over the remaining gap. Use some long
pieces of sticky tape to go down all the edges of the white card. This helps to
make sure your paper strips are all secured to the white card and also
reduces bulk.
Remove the masking tape from the edge of your card and turn it over to see the
finished effect. If you've got paper strips sticking out from the edge of the
white card, trim them off with apair scissors. You could use a craft knife and
metal ruler to get more straight edges, but, honestly, scissors work just fine.
Turn your card over and if you have any parts where those paper strips are coming
away from the card like at the bottom here then stick another long piece of
sticky tape down the edge to secure them.
Take your double-sided sticky tape and place a long strip down each of the
edges at the back of your card. Try to get the tape as close to the edges as you can.
I like to put a piece down the middle of the card as well for that extra bit of
stickiness. Peel off the backing of the double sided tape and firmly stick your
iris folding design to the front of your A5 card blank. Press down all over the
card to make sure it's really stuck down, and then there you have it - your finished
iris folding greetings card! Now, you could leave your card as it is because
it's already looking fabulous, or you could add some extra embellishments to
bling it up a little bit. I've got some paper flowers which I'm going to stick to
the front of my card using some Mod Podge glue. I'm layering up the flowers to
add some dimension to the card. Finally, I'm going to use some silver peel-off
stickers to add a shiny border along the top and bottom of the blue card for
that extra-special finishing touch. If your peel-offs aren't quite long enough,
stick two together to form longer lines and then just trim off the excess with
scissors. So now I finally have it- my gorgeous finished iris folding card!
Don't forget to visit www.craftwithsarah.com/iris-folding
to download the watering can pattern, as well as a great selection of other free
iris folding patterns that I've made for you.
If you've enjoyed this video, please
hit the 'Subscribe' button to keep up-to-date with all my card making and
papercraft tutorials. Thank you for watching!