Thursday, October 9, 2014

Origami Christmas Tree

Happy Thursday!

OK - you ready for this?  It is my tutorial for my Origami Christmas Tree!!  Ready?  Drum roll, please …… Ta Da!


Like it?  Hate it?  Yes - it's a little *different*.  I have some friends/customers who LOVE it and some who … well … wrinkle their noses, tilt their head to the side a little and make a "stinky" face.  I like it :)

Wanna learn how to make it?  Okee dokee!

12” Origami Christmas Tree

Start with 6 square sheets of coordinating DSP – I used 12” x 12” for the largest tree

Fold each piece corner to corner to form a triangle with the pattern you want showing to the OUTSIDE.  Accurate folding is very important for a polished, balanced project
Flip the paper over so you are working with the inside crease of the fold
Fold the bottom edge just up to the centre fold line to form a triangle – not QUITE touching it - you should have about a 1-2mm space between your bottom edge and fold line – you don’t want the edge right on TOP of the fold line.

Turn your paper ¼ turn counterclockwise and do the same thing with the new edge – again making sure to get close to, but not on top of, the fold line

Turn your paper ¼ turn counterclockwise again – and do the same thing with the new edge – again making sure to get close to, but not on top of, the fold line

Turn your paper ¼ turn counterclockwise again – and do the same thing with the new edge – again making sure to get close to, but not on top of, the fold line

You now have a kite-shaped piece of paper. 

Fold it in half on the original, centre fold line.  This is when you will notice whether or not you got too close to each fold line – if there was a little 1-2mm gap on each fold it will be easy to fold your paper in half at this point and there won’t be any bulging of the paper.
You now have your first tree section.

Repeat the above steps with the remaining 5 pieces of DSP
Make sure all pieces are the same orientation before adhering them together – the underside of each piece has a “large/long pointy end” and a “small/slightly shorter pointy end”.  I prefer to make the short one the top of the tree.
Use Fast Fuse to adhere the pieces together – snail will weaken over time and come unstuck.  Sticky strip can also be used but it gets expensive and is more fiddly.

Take 2 pieces of DSP - place fast fuse one of them, forming a triangle from the right hand, SIDE point to the top and down the fold line. 

Place the second piece of DSP on top, aligning the edge of the second piece with the centre fold of the first piece, and having the top points line up.  Press down to bond them securely.

 
Do the same thing with each remaining piece.
Finally, attach the first and last piece of DSP together in the same way, completing the tree shape.
If you’ve done all your folds accurately all of the legs will be level.

These can be made in any size as long as your pieces of DSP are square.  I have made them 12” x 12” (as above), medium with 8 ½” x 8 ½” and small with 6” x 6” (– which made adorable little Christmas ornaments – I simply threaded ribbon inside the tree before securing the final pieces of the tree together.)  The three different sized trees look really nice together as a centerpiece with or without little presents around them.
Make a 3-D star using the Star Framelits in the same manner as the 3-D pumpkins above.  Use 8 stars (for my 12” x 12” star I used the third smallest framelit – for smaller trees use the smaller framelit.

Fold each star exactly in half, use our bone folder to get a sharp crease …

 
Adhere each piece together using fast fuse, mini glue dots or sticky strip. 

Hot Glue it to the top of your tree.  For this particular tree I used the All is Calm DSP and the Brushed Silver card stock for the star – it would look nicer if I had used the Silver Foil sheets but I was out of stock!

Now the great thing about this project is that with 1 pack of DSP you can make 3 different sizes of tree …(1) 12" x 12", (1) 8" x 8" and one 4"x 4" …
ya, ya - I know these aren't all from the same pack of DSP … I used my other sheets from the pack for another project!) … point is you can get 3 out of 1 pack - Awesome!  For other demonstrators out there - this makes a great "Product Included" Class - include a pack of DSP and a Fast Fuse to the class fee and you have a fun night ready to go!

Phew!  OK!  That's enough for one post!  Pop in again and I'll show you how I made each of the little presents that I put under my little tree.  Until then - have a super stampy day!


Tam

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