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Make an Origami Cats 'Thinking of You' Card:
Click Here for Free Printables Option A
Click Here for Free Printables Option B
Click Here for Free Printables Option C
Origami Diagram Part 1
Origami Diagram Part 2
This is an origami cat design that we came up with. Don't worry if you don't know how to read an origami diagram, full written instructions with pictures are below. To make this card, you need orange and cream card stock along with printables A. Choose other coordinating card stock if you prefer printables B or C for your origami cats.
You will need 3 square tiles for each cat and 4 tiles for the corners, a total of 10 tiles to make this card. The printables come with 12 tiles so you will have 2 extra to practice with. Carefully cut out each tile and the printable greeting.
From the orange card stock cut out a piece that is 10 inches by 7 inches and fold that in half. Also from the orange card stock cut out a strip that is 4.25 X .75 inches to go behind the printable greeting. From the cream card stock print out a piece that is 4.5 X 6.5 inches.
You can go ahead and mount the cream card stock to the front of the orange card by just gluing it in place.
Let's start with folding and placing the corners. You will need four tiles for this, one for each corner. First fold the tile in half diagonally as shown in Step 1 below. Make a nice seam with the back of your fingernail or another tool. Open the tile back up and the seam should be visible(Step 2). Now fold the far left and right corners toward the center so they meet as shown in Step 3. Lastly, fold the tile in half again along the original crease you made, glue it closed, and you should have something that looks like Step 4. Repeat this 3 more times.
Position each of the 4 corners you folded onto your cream card stock and glue them in place.
Now you can glue the printable greeting to the strip of orange card stock and then glue that to the front of your card, centered and about .75 inches from the bottom of the cream card stock.
Now let's make the cats starting with the heads. First fold the tile in half horizonally as shown in Step 5. Make a nice crease and open it back up(Step 6). Now fold the bottom 2 corners up toward the center and along the seam you previously made, as shown in Steps 7 and 8. Next fold the bottom tip up so it meets the center of the tile as shown in step 9. You have now made the bottom of the cat's head.
To make the ears, fold the top of the tile down(Step 10) so it meets up with the center seam you previously made in Step 6. If you opened this fold back up it would look like Image 10B, but do not open it back up. Now you will be folding the ears up as shown in Steps 11 and 12. Turn it over and it should resemble a cat's head. Repeat steps 5 through 12 to make a second cat head.
Let's move on to making the bodices. First, repeat Steps 5 and 6 above, fold the tile in half horizonally and open it back up. Now fold both the top edge and the bottom edge toward the center seam you made as shown in Steps 13 and 14. Open it back up and you should have 3 visible seams(Step 15).
Step 16 shows how to fold in all the corners to meet the seams you made in Steps 13 and 14 above. Next fold the bottom edge up to meet the center seam as shown in step 17. Turn it over and it should resemble a cat's body. Repeat the instructions to make the body so you have 2 bodices.
To make the tail, repeat steps 5, 6, 13, and 14 but this time do not open it back up. Instead fold over both tips on one end so they meet with the center seam and form a tip as shown in Steps 18 and 19. Fold it in half lengthwise and you should have something that looks like Step 20. Repeat these steps to make a second tail.
Now turn each of the tails upwards. The exact placement of each of these 2 folds doesn't matter, but you may want to fold one toward you and one away from you. When placing them on your card, place the one folded toward you first and the one folded away from you second so the second tail will stay folded up on the card and the first tail will push the second one up a bit to give the card more of a 3D effect.
Now arrange the cats on the front of your card with one cat sitting at each end of the greeting mounted on card stock. When you are gluing the heads in place you can rotate them towards each other a little covering a small portion of the bodice. Now glue just the base of each tail to your card so they stick out of the card for a 3D effect and you should have a card that looks something like this. Add faces and whiskers to your cats if you'd like.
For more information about origami, visit http://www.craftsitedirectory.com/origami/.
If you complete this project or any of the other projects available here, please send in photo(s) for our gallery! Email them to cardmaking@comcast.net. If you are having trouble following these instructions, questions/comments are also welcome.
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