Totally Unoriginal CASE'd Projects: Folded Trees And Punched Snowmen

I mean totally unoriginal thought of mine, 'cause I'm CASE-ing them.

I made a few folded Christmas trees to send out as Christmas cards. I've seen these kinds of Christmas trees somewhere; I swear my mother must have made it for a wall hanging or something. I was reminded of the pattern by Stampin' Dad Jason Casper.

It was a little bit of a geometrical puzzle, and it was too intriguing not to give it a try. [Thinking to self: This must be why I like paper folding and origami... there is a mathematical aspect.] It starts with a half-circle of patterned paper, starting at a pivot point 25% across the base of the half-circle, you make three mountain and valley folds, each at a 45 degree angle from the previous fold originating from that pivot point. It makes sense... 4 segments of the tree, therefore start at 25% across the base, and each segment will be at a 45 degree angle (4 x 45 degree = 180 degrees = half-circle). Confusing? I know, visual is better.

Let's start from the end so you can see where I'm going with this. I unfolded my paper and drew pencil lines to illustrate how the fold lines radiate from the 25% mark, and all angles are 45 degrees.

1. Cut your half-circle of any size. I just cut a circle out, folded in half, and free-hand cut along the score line.
2. Draw a mark at 25% of the length of the half-circle base from the right edge. My circle is 4-3/8", so I drew a mark at ~1-1/8". Then, using a protractor for accuracy (protractor optional), I drew a straight line from my 25% mark. This is actually the only line you need to draw. Pencil line is faint. Feel free to click on the picture to enlarge.

3. Taking the longer left side of the circle base, using the 25% mark as the angle pivot (apex of your angle), fold until the larger edge of the circle meets the pencil line.

4. Flip your paper over and fold so that your crease lines up with the edge of the paper below it.

5. Fold down the top section of the tree. If you did your percentages correctly, it should line up with both sides of the tree.

Here is the card I made. Simple enough to reproduce a bunch of times, and a great way to showcase both sides of the patterned paper!

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Garden Green, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Merry Moments DSP; Ink: Garden Green; Accessories: Chocolate Chip ribbon, Fire rhinestone circle brads, Modern Label punch, Word Window punch, Finial Press embossing folder, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Edit to add: I did do a search to try to find the origin of this folded tree, at least in papercrafting, without much luck. There is several examples of using this pattern for folded napkins and other fabric projects, which date back to at least 2004. Your guess is as good as mine.

And I've seen this card around, but first saw it on Sharon Field's website. Such a cutie, I thought I should make one too.

A great way to use up some of my Whisper White scraps!

Stamps: Serene Snowflakes, Holidays & Wishes; Paper: Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White; Ink: Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Whisper White craft, Basic Black marker; Accessories: Sponge, 2-1/2" Circle punch, 1-3/4" Circle punch, 1-1/4" Circle punch, Ribbon, Brads, Snowflake #2 die, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

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