Kirigami Greeting Card by Lis Whiting

Kirigami means “cut paper.” Kiri means “cut” and gami means “paper”. The difference between Origami and Kirigami is that the cutting of paper is allowed in Kirigami. (Origami uses only folds.)

In Kirigami, we still start by folding paper. You will find that this is very reminiscent of the snowflakes that we made as children for Christmas decorations. There are several approaches to folding. There are two basic things to be sure of though:

1. Start with a square piece of paper. (for example: 4” x 4”, 3 x 3, 6 x 6)
2. The more folds you make, the thinner your paper needs to be. This is to facilitate the cutting.

Creating Your Kirigami piece:
Take a 5 x 5 piece of paper and fold in half [Black Ink Blue Iridescent paper used here by Graphic Product Corp.]. (See Picture 1  
© Lis Whitingand  Picture 2)
© Lis Whiting  Fold this into thirds. (See Picture 3)
© Lis Whiting  Make sure you know where the seam of the initial fold is. (See Picture 4)
© Lis Whiting  You don’t want to cut through all of this as your Kirigami piece will fall apart. This will be a 6-part Kirigami piece.

Once you have completed your folds, you can start cutting a design into the paper. For our piece we will be using hand punches [Fiskars Hand Punches: circle, square, pear, moon, triangle, diamond, apple & rectangle]. (See Picture 5)
© Lis Whiting  The Fiskars hand punches are great because they come in a variety of designs and each one has a built-in container to catch the punchies so they don’t go all over the floor. The punchies can be used as confetti or for shaker boxes or other decorations so save them!

Once you have punched out your design (See Picture 6)
© Lis Whiting , unfold it. (See Picture 7)  
© Lis Whiting Iron the piece to remove the creases (cover first with another thicker sheet of paper before ironing). Run this through a Xyron to apply adhesive to the backside of the Kirigami. Take a stylus and run it over all the edges of your piece including the cuts to get the adhesive away from the inside of the punches. Set aside.

Note: If you prefer, you can take scissors and make cuts in the paper when folded to create your design. Tip: To make an elegant design, cut out long thin curving strips. (See Picture 8)
© Lis Whiting

The above is only one style of Kirigami. To see other approaches, go to the internet and search under “Kirigami.”

Create your card:
Take an 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 inch sheet of color coordinated cardstock and fold in half to create your base. Cut a piece of gold glossy [The Paper Cut] 5-1/4 x 3 inch. Mount this onto your card base starting at the top. This piece will be centered horizontally but not vertically. (See Picture 9)
© Lis Whiting  Add your Kirigami piece. Place it over the gold and slightly onto the card base (See Picture 10)
© Lis Whiting  Fold the rest to the back of the card. (See Picture 11)
© Lis Whiting

Emboss (in detail gold) Asian calligraphy rubber stamps [Kodomo, Inc] onto color coordinated cardstock (not the same exact color as your card base). Cut or punch out. Take some decorative toothpicks (the ones I used here can be found at Cracker Barrel and have a carved decorative top) and cut off the pointed end of the toothpick with a pair of wire cutters. Smooth the end if needed with sandpaper. Adhere each embossed piece, with one to two toothpicks underneath, to your card with mounting tape. (See Picture 12  
© Lis Whiting and Picture 13)
© Lis Whiting   Add tassel.

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