Iris Folding @
CircleOfCrafters.com

Wendy, from Leeds in the UK, completed this scene. She stated that she enjoyed making the picture and hopes to see more challenges on this site. Here is more of what she had to say about the project:

" As soon as I saw the pattern emerge on the web page I just knew I had to do it. I printed out each portion and inserted it into a folder. I then went back and printed out again the iris folding designs. Mainly so I could keep the folder intact in case I wanted to do it again and some future date. I have kept the second set of cut out iris folding's as well.

Poster board was difficult to get in the U.K., so I started with a piece of A3 card, which I then added pieces to make the size 16 inches by 20 inches. From there I drew out my basic design of the where the sky, sea, sand and hill were going to be. From there I cut out the iris folding shapes, which on card was very easy, I used a craft knife to do this.

I then started to stick the sky, sea and sand onto the picture. All of these papers were hand made papers, quite thick. I tore them up into haphazard pieces and then stuck them on, didn't matter if they overlapped the iris folding cut outs at this state. Last of all was the hillside, this is done in crepe paper, but the effect of the glue on this paper has made it look like dark and light parts of the hillside. Would not really recommend this type of paper as it stretches all over the place.

Next, I left the whole thing for about 24 hours to thoroughly dry. Then went around all the iris folding shapes and very gently cut off the overlapping paper with either a craft knife or set of twizzers the overlapping papers.

Then the fun really began on using the iris folding papers and origami papers, which I cut into strips to do the folding. I started with the clouds, then the lighthouse, dolphin, fish, towel, boat, sun shade. All of these were quite simple to do. I then decided that for the palm tree I would use corrugated card so as to give that rustic effect. I used brown for the trunk and then green for the palm top. I also used a different shade of brown corrugated card for the bottom of the boat, the mast of the boat and a piece of green corrugated card for the stem of the umbrella.

The palm was not that difficult to do, but you had to be very careful with all the small pieces and get the zig zag pattern correct on the trunk and leaves, otherwise it would have spoil the overall effect.

I then did the tortoise in the same type of corrugated card, but this time in brown, blue and green. I also used the same type of paper to make the star fish, so that it stood out from the sand. The birds were made again out of corrugated paper, but I used the back to show outwards, which was black.

I then stuck my card with double sided tape on to a sheet of mounting board cut to the same size as the card. The ribbon I used for the final step was an embossed type of ribbon and didn't really fancy using glue on that, so again reverted to the old double sided tape to stick it on, mitering the corners as I went."
Wendy