A Few Fun Paper-Folding Projects

Boxes from (used) Greeeting Cards

Use the front of a greeting card (Christmas cards work great). Cut it in a square so that some image, or focal point, is in the center of the square. This will fold into the top of the box.

Use the back of the greeting card (or piece of blank cardstock). Cut it in a square that is one centimeter less in length and width compared square you are using for the top of the box. This square will fold into the bottom of the box.

Follow these directions. (Or, see these directions.) Each square is folded the same way.

Unit Origami

Origami units (called "star-building units") are easy to fold (using square paper). They can be assembled (no tape or glue) into many interesting shapes. The shapes can be taken apart and the origami units can be stored for use at a later date. We have a book (Unfolding Mathematics with Unit Origami) in the MERO (Morgan 209, Western Illinois University) that gives all the directions - or you can contact me and I can give you the directions.

 

PHiZZ Units

A "PHiZZ unit" is a pentagon-hexagon-zig-zag unit. They can be combined to make, you guessed it, pentagons and hexagons. The small ball uses 30 units (dodecahedron). The large ball has 90 units (truncated icosahedron - soccer ball). These were created by Tom Hull. He has some nice YouTube videos. See also. Here are a few examples: