Anyone can go to the store to find a card,  and I’ll admit you can find some really nice ones.  ( Sometimes you have to pay a ‘really nice’ price,  too.)

The card pictured here is very simple,  yet beautiful and different.   You’ll never find one like it in any store.   It won’t cost you an arm and a leg to make it,   and you can have it finished in no time.

(Click the underlined link above for more origami ideas.)

Washi paper, made from fibers of the bark of the gampi tree, is stronger than ordinary paper made from wood pulp. This paper is available on the commercial market, but is expensive. Foil-backed paper, a sheet of thin foil glued to a sheet of thin paper, is sometimes used in origami. The foil paper is available in a multitude of colors. Likewise, one can make tissue foil by gluing a piece of aluminum foil to the front and back sides of a piece of tissue paper.

Kami appears to be the most popular paper for origami. It is the easiest to find and the cheapest to buy (other than plain white copy paper.) As a rule, it is printed on one side only with a solid color or pattern. Also, as we’ve mentioned before, paper money is a popular medium for origami.

As a child, many of us learned to fold a sheet of paper into a pinwheel or perhaps a box, an envelope, a hat, a boat, or an airplane. (Remember writing a note on a piece of paper, folding it into an airplane, and sending it flying across the school classroom?) These were all simple items to make. By mastering the techniques we used for these projects, we are then in a position to learn new folds and methods and move on to more complicated designs.

Those of you who have mastered this craft know that you must follow a few origami folding instructions. There are several basic folds and techniques to learn. Once these are learned, the process should become much easier.

The sailboats, airplanes, hats, and other items we made, though slightly more complicated, were all simple projects using origami. Once a child has mastered these skills, he can easily progress to more advanced paper folding designs.

Money origami

What would make a person think of using money for this purpose? Perhaps he or she had a long wait somewhere – at the airport, in a restaurant or doctor’s office, and just pulled out a bill and started playing with it. Seems like a good way to pass the time!

There are only a few different folds used in creating this craft, but these folds can be combined in various ways to represent an object. This is done by using geometric folds and creases, usually without gluing or cutting the paper. What is fascinating about this is that this is done using only one sheet of paper. The finished creations are often very amazing, appearing to be complicated to create.

Origami for kids can teach patience – a real virtue that will serve them well when pursuing other hobbies or just dealing with people on a day-to-day basis. It’s also beneficial for children to learn how to handle an incorrect fold – will they crumple the paper into a ball out of frustration, or patiently smooth out the crease and try again? Fingernails should be trimmed short so as not to break, but not so short that one cannot make an effective crease.