Tutorial - Star Fold Card

Several years ago, my friend Deirdre taught me how to make a fabulous star fold card. Although it's a little fiddly, and there's some math involved *gasp*, it really is a great fold and is sure to impress the most discerning recipient. This fold would be particularly great at Christmastime and could be easily adapted to hang from a tree as a combined card and ornament.

You need to start by cutting an equilateral triangle, which, if you'll cast your mind back to math class, you'll remember is a triangle with three equal sides. (Yep, I had to look it up!) You will probably have your own way of figuring out how to cut an equilateral triangle, but I've included my technique just in case you've never really given it much thought.

1. Start with a 12" x 12" sheet of card stock.

2.  Draw a vertical line down the centre.

3.  Place your ruler at the 12" mark on one of the corners.  Keeping the 12" mark on the corner of the card stock, move the ruler until the 0" mark is directly over the centre line.  Draw a line from the corner to the centre line.  Repeat for the other side.  You should now have an equilateral triangle with all three sides measuring 12" long.

4. Cut along the lines you marked so you end up with a triangle-shaped piece of card stock.

5.  Measure and mark the centre of each side of the triangle, which will be at 6".

6.  Use your ruler and pencil to draw lines between each mark.  And like magic (although my kids insist it's just simple math), you should now have another equilateral triangle inside the large one.

7. Now measure and mark 4" from each corner.

8.  Draw lines from mark to mark, parallel to the small triangle. Now score along all six lines that you drew.

9. Mountain fold the outer score lines and valley fold the inner ones, pressing firmly along each crease.

10. And that's pretty much it for the base of your card. It can be a little tricky folding it up, but it's basically like folding up a cardboard box where you tuck the last flap under the first.

11.  Decorate your star fold card with pieces of patterned paper. I used a large triangle for the centre, small triangles for the outer sections and strips with mitred ends for the middle. You'll also need to put pieces on the outside, centre sections that are visible when the card is folded.

12. Now you can add whatever embellishments, images and stamps you like. If you have elements that hang over creases, be careful not to glue the card closed. Also keep in mind that the card will fold out, changing the position of the items you've added, so you might want to check it before you secure it in place permanently.

And that's it, you're done.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and an extra big thank you to my clever friend, Deirdre, for teaching me how to make these fabulous cards.

Stamps: