Fabulous modern origami shirt card with some cute miniatures to match.

I've made the background on this card from the individual backing papers, and then devised the sheet that has all the pre-done components, so it's up to you as to whether you pick the easy way or the hard way....!

For this one print:-

The Origami Shirt & Lunch Card Kit Blue onto quality white paper (easy way)
The blue circles background onto quality white paper

For the harder, more committed, card-maker way print:-

The blue-striped business shirts onto quality white paper
The Business Lunch sheet onto quality white paper
The blue circles background onto quality white paper
The burgundy circles background onto quality white paper
The blue gingham background onto quality white paper
The blue stripes background onto quality white paper
The plain burgundy sheet onto quality white paper
The greetings sheet onto quality white card

The blue gingham background sheet can downloaded for free by clicking here. Click on the link to open the image in Adobe Acrobat reader - if you need it you can download it for free by clicking on the button below.

What a lot to print, one sheet option probably best....... The only thing that goes a little wrong is that the greeting on this sheet will be printed on paper rather than card. Either mount the paper version onto plain or metallic card or print the greetings sheet separately onto card and use that instead.

Using the one-sheet method to make the card.......

Cover the front of a white 7" x 5" card blank with the blue circles backing paper using double-sided tape.

Cut out the striped background piece and stick it to the left hand side of the card, around 6mm in. 

Stick the burgundy circles background piece onto a larger piece of silver metallic card with double-sided tape before trimming round with a craft knife and ruler to leave a small border.

Add this piece, and also the gingham piece to the card with double-sided tape as shown, leaving enough of a gap in between them to fit the greeting. Add the greeting with sticky pads.

To make the origami shirt:-

Start off with a piece of paper that is 13cm x 7.5cm or one of our ready-done origami shirt pieces which has pre-printed guide lines on it. If you're using the latter, the triangular guide line arrangement should be at the top of the piece (hard to see here).

Fold the paper in half, with the pattern still visible, and then unfold it. Our ready-done shirts have small guide lines at each end - use a ruler to emboss along this line first before folding for a really accurate fold.

Turn the paper over and fold the two long edges in towards the centre crease so that they meet neatly in the middle.

Turn up the two bottom middle corners so that they meet the outer edge of the paper. This will form two diagonal creases.

Turn up the bottom of the paper and fold it over where the flaps from the previous step end.

Stick your fingers inside the folded up area. Grab hold of the tip of the corner piece on one side. Pull it out and to the side. Now repeat this for the corner piece on the other side.

Now tuck each corner back inside itself to form the sleeves.

Turn the paper over and emboss the straight crease line with an embossing tool or cocktail stick, then fold (embossing it first makes for a neater fold).

Turn the paper over again and emboss the two angled crease lines before folding them in to form the collar. Make sure that the tips of the collar meet.

Finally fold the bottom of the paper up and under the tips of the collar. Shirt folding is complete!

When you have completed the shirt, use strips of double sided tape on each side to seal it shut.

To make the sandwich bag, cut it out with a craft knife and ruler, then emboss all the crease lines with a cocktail stick. Seal the side of the bag with a strip of narrow double-sided tape, then fold up the bottom of the bag like a present, using the pre-printed lines to guide you. Stick with a tiny piece of double-sided tape.

For the handles, again use a cocktail stick to emboss the crease lines. Then fold in the lines, using a cocktail stick or pokey tool to help you as it's a bit fiddly. Add a little tacky glue with a cocktail stick to stick it together. Fold the two ends of the piece at right-angles to form the handle, then add it to the inside of the bag with double-sided tape. Repeat for the second handle.

If you'd rather have a plain bag with no writing, stick it to the card writing-side down.

To make the coffee cup, carefully cut out the long burgundy coffee strip and start to roll it using a cocktail stick. Once it's started, you can take out the cocktail stick and continue to roll to the end. Let it out a little until the roll is the size you want and stick the end with double-sided tape.

The 'sandwiches' are made with a double thickness of 1.5cm squares of fun foam, wrapped with the printed 'greaseproof paper' square. Wrap it around the fun foam and fold over the edge that shows before sealing with double-sided tape. Trim the ends with scissors, then double-fold into the sandwiches and seal with double-sided tape.

Stick the origami shirt into place with double-sided tape.

Arrange the lunch items in the bottom panel, then stick the sandwich bag and sandwiches with double-sided tape. Add the coffee cup with a strong tacky glue such as Aleene's.

See all of our origami card projects on