I love iris folding! It’s a wonderful craft that’s great for keeping the hands moving, the brain ticking over and the mind calm. In this post I’m going to share with you how to create your own iris folding patterns using a free square template.
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A few years ago, I started off iris folding by purchasing kits from Bethan – Pretty in Paper by B. I then wanted to have a go at creating my own designs. You may have come across some of these on my site before. If not, check out this iris folding directory page here to see the free patterns I’ve shared. If you’d like to find out more about the origins of iris folding this post will tell you more.
One of my favourite iris folding patterns is the humble square. There is so much versatility with a square where you can add elements to a basic square pattern to personalise it to the recipient. This post goes through how to create a square with a video showing step by step how to complete the square pattern.
This post shows how to use the square and embellish it to make it something special for different occasions. I particularly like using single letters for initials of names or numbers for birthday ages.
In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to use the square pattern in a different way. Rather than doing the square and then adding elements to it. In this how to I’m going to show you how to create a pattern using shaped blanks. I’d recommend having a go at this if you have tried iris folding before. If you are completely new to the papercraft I’d have a go at doing a simple square or one of the other patterns first before designing your own.
What You Need
- Card with aperture cut out – you can either do this with a craft knife or use a cutting machine (I used a cutting machine to cut out a 50)
- Pencil
- Coloured pen optional
- Square template with alphabet on (free download below)
You need other resources to complete the iris folding. This is just for the pattern.
Free Square Template Download
Download “Simple Square Blank” Iris-Folding-Square-Make-Your-Own-Pattern-Template.pdf – Downloaded 12 times – 261.12 KBStep by Step How to Create Your Own Pattern
Below you will find a step by step guide on how to create your own. Below you will find a video that may be helpful especially if you prefer to see how things are done.
- Print out the free square template download above
- Prepare your card with aperture (I’m using a 50 that I’ve cut out)
- Remember that you are working on the back of the design so if you are doing numbers or letters these will be backwards
- Place the card with aperture onto the square template and find a position you are happy with that gives you a design pattern you like. You can just working with the centre of the square template if you prefer
- Draw around the aperture so that you have the shape on your square template
- Remove your aperture card
- Now we need to work out what sequence we will be doing the iris folding in. The square template has letters on it. We will be adding numbers – it can help to use a different coloured pen to make the numbers stand out. Looking at your outline that you have drawn, what letter is the furthest in the alphabet that your design goes into. This is where we start. If you have more than one of the furthest letter in the alphabet then you will need to start at one set and work your way around. For example if you have four ‘j’s start in the top left quarter then top right, then bottom right, then bottom left and back to ‘i’ on the top left quarter again as though you are working clockwise.
- The last letter of the alphabet on your outline is where you will start. This is number 1 on your pattern, if there is no others of that letter move to the next last letter, this is 2. As before, if you have more than one of the letter work your way around. The video below will really help explain this further.
- Continue to work around your pattern until each section has a number corresponding to it. Your pattern is now ready for you to ‘iris fold’ onto. The video below will show you how to iris fold your design.
Do drop me a comment or an email to let me know how you got on or if you have any questions or need any help with your design.
