A peek inside my collage/origami lotus flower artist trading card...
Hello! This is a follow-up to last week’s article in which I mentioned creating an origami/collage fusion-inspired artist trading card (ATC) using the lotus flower design as inspiration. Today I’ll share some tips on making one with you…
After showing my husband Kevin some of my origami lotus flowers, I noticed he kept on opening their centres to see what image was inside. Since this section consisted of a small square, I thought it would be neat to create a tiny collage right there in the centre. So I made a test ATC and voilà my Japanese-inspired ATC was born!
As I reflected upon it, it reminded me of one of those fortune teller origami paper game pieces I played with as a kid. You know the ones with the numbers on the outside and the fortunes on the inside? Soon I realized with this ATC design I could get three cool images in one: a background setting, a patterned origami exterior and a wonderful surprise image set in the centre of the lotus flower! One could even put a short quote or fortune inside the lotus if they wished! Here are the steps for creating this quick and easy ATC…
The exterior of my lotus flower artist trading card... note it's been photographed against a cool ad I found.
7 Easy Steps to Making Your Collage/Origami ATC:
Supplies: glue stick, double-sided tape, scissors, exacto knife, ruler, pen & blank ATC card. Optional supplies: stickers, permanent pens, colour markers & bone folder.
1) Cut out a perfect 3 by 3 inch square from an interesting magazine page. By “interesting”, I mean choose something with intriguing lines, textures, patterns and colours.
2) Fold your square into an origami lotus flower design. (See AOE instructions.)
3) Open up the centre square of the flower; make and glue a small collage consisting of one to three images in it. For these I kept it simple and used only one image. You don’t have to cover the whole square; you can incorporate its background into your collage as well.
4) Choose a magazine page that complements the colours of your lotus flower for the background of your ATC.
5) Trace your ATC card onto the magazine page; cut it out and glue it to your card. Trim the edges with an exacto knife if necessary.
6) Decide where you want to place your lotus flower; use double-sided tape to stick it on your card.
7) You can also add words, quotes or other interesting textures to the background of your ATC… on one of mine I included some “bling” – faux diamonds stickers!
Notes:
1) Your origami will look less wonky and fit together beautifully if you cut it out in a perfect square (using a ruler!) and fold it three times over with your nail or a bone folder.
2) Use a nice mid-weight paper from a magazine for your flower. I noticed that cheap, thin magazine paper tore easily while thick glossy paper cracked when I folded it.
3) An ATC is 3.5 by 2.5 inches; a 3 x 3 inch square, once folded, fits perfectly on it and is easy to work with when collaging a piece for the centre… anything smaller and you’ll need tweezers!
CYW Collage/Origami ATC Trade Challenge!
Best wishes with this project. As usual, if you test it out, I’d love to see your handiwork. Also, I’ll trade a collage/origami ATC of mine with the first person who sends me the definition of “origami”!
Other Related Links:
Significant Contributions: An Origami Art Project Unfolding
Artist Trading Cards: History, Rituals, How To’s
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