Lantern Iris Folding Pattern
Welcome to another iris folding pattern blog post. I’m so excited to share this one with you. It’s an iris folding papercraft lantern and I think it’s beautiful. It would be the perfect craft for celebrating Lunar New Year (for more ideas for this festival check out this post).
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This post will share with you a free lantern iris folding pattern template for you to use. Terms of use can be found here. To find out more about how to iris fold check out this post. You can also check out my YouTube channel which has different iris folding tutorials to follow such as the bunny below.
Iris Folding Lantern Difficulty
The lantern pattern is not for the faint hearted. The actual design is simple and follows a hexagon pattern. The difficulty comes with the fact that the frame is very narrow so you don’t have much to stick your tape to. I needed to use very tiny pieces of tape. It gets easier as you go through the pattern. I would suggest this is a pattern for a more experienced iris folder due to how fiddly it is. I’d recommend having a go at the stained glass window pattern or the robin pattern if you are a beginner. They are both based on a hexagon pattern but much easier to manipulate the paper.
Top Tip for Iris Folding Paper
The paper you use is important. You really want to use paper that is between 60-80gsm. This paper is quite thin but makes folds easier and ensures your card is not too bulky once complete. Origami paper is a good term to search for when looking for iris folding papers. When purchasing be sure to check on the size of the paper as origami paper can be very small. You will find the resources that I used to make the lantern here. Iris folding was traditionally started using the inside of envelopes!
Iris Folding Finds
I’m always on the look out for for iris folding resources. Here’s a few that we have that are good value:
Packs of interesting cards and papers are perfect for the centre of your iris folding designs. These can be thicker than what you’ve used in the rest of your design as there is no need to fold.
Card Blank or Mounted?
It’s entirely up to you if you’d prefer to work on a piece of card and then mount onto a card blank. You can work directly onto a card blank.
For the lantern I cut out the aperture on black card and then mounted onto an A5 white card blank. Whatever way you choose you’ll need to make sure that you cut out the reverse of the shape onto your card as you work on the back of the design. If you decided to work directly onto the card blank then using a small paper insert inside the card will hide your working.
Free Lantern Iris Folding Pattern
Use the download button below to get your free lantern iris folding pattern. I’ve given suggestions for colours but feel free to experiment and go with whatever colours you’d like. It looks equally stunning in blues and silver tones.
Find more free iris folding patterns here including heart, robin bunny and rainbow archway.
Resources for Lantern Iris Folding
You can find a list of the resources I used for this pattern here. My top tip is to use a tape dispenser that is weighted so you can use it with only one hand!
Cutting Out Iris Folding Templates
When cutting out the lantern you can use a cutting machine such as the Brother Scan N Cut below or Cricut. Your could also use a craft knife.
Brother Scan N Cut Options
Cricut Options
(image from Cricut)
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