Craft: Folding a Letter into an Origami Shirt

Handwritten letters are (I think) quite a rarity nowadays. At least for my case, I probably will leave that for special occasions. In this case, I planned to write one for him in commemoration of our ROM anniversary.

Typically after we have written/typed letters (quite rare these days!), we just fold it into halves, thirds or quarters and stuff them into envelopes.

I feel that the typical way of folding a letter is quite boring. Especially more so if the letter is written for a special occasion~

So, what did I do to make it a little more interesting? I married my love for origami with letter folding ;) Hence, I googled for some ideas and decided to fold my letter into a manly origami shirt. It doubled up as a card as well :)

This is where I will write my "essay" to him :)

Difficulty level is (I feel) probably easy to medium. What I like about folding this origami shirt is it does not take long to make one.

I left the YouTube links on how to make the shirt and necktie under below references. For my case, I did not go with the necktie idea. Instead, I drew buttons and pockets on the origami shirt itself. Pardon my ugly drawing.

There you go~ This is just one of the many quick and easy ways to spice things up a little. You can also make an Origami Heart, Origami Aeroplane, etc. Basically, anything that opens up quite quickly.

Hope this helps to make your card a little more interesting/unique =) 

References: 

1. YouTube - Fold a Missionary Card (or Dad Birthday Card or Father's Day Card) Part 1: Shirt Folding, Origami
2. YouTube - Fold a Father's Day Card (or Birthday or Missionary Card), Part 2 - The Tie, Origami

Crafts: Straw Heart Shape

Do you have those moments whereby you want to pamper your significant other half with handmade gifts? There are many handmade stuff which you can make for such occasions. Most common would be anything in the shape of a heart, for example paper heart[1], straw heart[2], etc. Both are branches of origami: paper origami and straw origami respectively.

Straw heart

Decided to try my hands at both paper heart and straw heart. Materials required are cheap and easy to get: 2 straws for straw heart; a piece of paper for paper heart.

I do not have red or pink coloured straws or paper at home. Hence, the final product in white as shown above. You can choose to make them using red or pink coloured straws or paper to create the loving atmosphere.

By the way, I did not follow the YouTube closely (especially towards the end). Because I intended to use it as a bookmark, I left one strand of straw uncut.

References:

1. YouTube - Paper heart
2. YouTube - Straw heart

Crafts: Toilet Paper Origami

One of my hobbies is origami (折り紙) or Japanese art of paper folding. Hence when the Toilet Paper Origami (TPO) popped up in my Facebook News Feed, it caught my attention immediately.

Have you ever notice the toilet papers in hotels' rest rooms? Many upscale hotels have janitors who fold the toilet papers after cleaning. Hence, seeing such TPO reminded me of my hotel stays. That in turn gives me the feeling of being on a vacation/staycation.

I tried my hands at some of them:

Classical triangle fold

Pleat fold

Origami leaf

Origami tree

Origami bird

I guess if I want to recreate the feeling of being on vacation/staycation while enjoying the comfort of my home, I will fold a TPO ;)

By the way, it seems like the TPO diagrams are arranged in difficulty level: ranging from basic folds such as the Classic Triangle Fold (about 2 to 3 steps), to more complicated folds such as the Origami Bird (more than 10 steps).

Each fold would probably take you no more than 10 minutes (assuming that you have some experience with origami). Oh~ with Christmas just around the corner, you might want to consider folding the TPO tree to add a festive touch ;) So, do give them a try!

Reference:

1. Origami Resource Center - Toilet Paper Origami