Iris Folding Khatam Card {Tutorial}
We decided to make this iris folding khatam card to send to loved ones for Eid AlFitar, the holiday that commemorates the end of the holy month as we enter the last 10 nights of Ramadan, the most special nights of the Islamic year.
A khatam is the Arabic world for eight point star and very commonly seen in Islamic architecture.
Iris folding is a craft technique that uses paper to create a pattern that looks like the diaphragm of a camera lens.
My daughter looked at different iris folding patterns online and decided to draw her own inside of a khatam.
Supplies
- Cardstock
- Iris pattern
- 2 equal square cardstock shapes
- Card
- Xacto
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Glue
The first step is to draw out a khatam design on the card. My daughter placed the two equal squares on top of each other, but then off set them to make an eight point outline.
Next my daughter used the xacto to cut out the khatam shape.
Now my daughter need to create the iris folding pattern. She used an extra piece of paper to outline the khatam again, but this time she used the ruler to create lines inside, numbering the spaces they create along the way.
My daughter choose to make her iris folding pattern start with red in two shades, then orange and finally yellow. She cut the cardstock into small stripes.
Once the stripes are cut, she placed the pattern under the opening in the card and glued them down, starting with covering up the area of the pattern with the number 1.
With the first few stripes, there might be some paper hanging over the edge of the card. My daughter just took the xacto and cut off the extra paper.
My daughter continued to add stripes of the cardstock, changing out the color as she got closer to the center, which she eventually used a square piece of cardstock to cover.
Now the card was done and is ready to be mailed. If you enjoyed learning how to iris fold, make sure you check out these other cards
Moon and Star Bookmarks Card {Tutorial}
Visit A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to see more tutorials.
