Folding Heart

A heart from a pink sheet becomes a 2½ × 2⅜ in envelope after four folds, wrapped in a band with a seal. Inside: your own words, notes, a pocket with a tag and little hearts with raised halves.

• Easy
• 2 Letter sheets
• 4 folds
• 9 squares
• 13 pieces

Make it with your phone cameraLesson code: 6768

On VanGami the template appears over your sheet through your phone camera — no printer needed. Trace it, cut, fold and glue. Below are all the steps in text.

What you’ll need

• 2 Letter sheets — office paper, 80 gsm (20 lb)
• Markers
• Pencil — and eraser
• Fine pen — burgundy or black, for writing words
• Scissors — small
• Glue stick — or PVA glue
• Empty pen — to score the folds
• Ruler — 8–12 in
• Glass — phone stand

Steps

Sheet 1

1. Sheet 1: pink sheet. The pink sheet should be under the camera now. The template has 2 sheets. The sheet is white — the pieces get their color in the coloring step.
2. Heart and band: outlines. Trace the solid line — the edge of the heart, almost the whole sheet. Below it is a long strip: that's the band.
3. Heart: folds. Trace four dash-dot lines with a ruler: two from top to bottom and two across. Number each one — that's the order of the folds.
4. Heart: frames. Trace the five frames with a light line — the stickers will go here. Don't trace the wavy lines or the dashes along the edge — you'll write those with a pen.
5. Pink. The paper is white, but these parts should be this color on both sides: color them up to the outline, then turn the sheet over and color the back.
6. Write your own words. Where the screen shows wavy lines, write your own words with a fine pen. Draw a dashed line along the edge of the heart and the band, and draw the little hearts in red.

Sheet 2

7. Sheet 2: white sheet. Remove the previous sheet and put the white sheet in its place, lined up edge to edge. Don’t move the phone — the scale stays the same.
8. Stickers: outlines. Trace the four pieces: two notes, a slightly taller picture and a narrow ribbon with notched ends.
9. Stickers: drawing. On the notes: ruled lines and a little heart; on the picture: a frame, two hearts and a sun; on the ribbon: a space for a caption.
10. Pocket and tag: outlines. The pocket is a rectangle with a semicircular notch at the top. The tag is narrow, with its top corners cut off.
11. Pocket and tag: drawing. On the pocket: diagonal stripes, a dashed stitch line along three edges and a heart in a circle. On the tag: a dot for the hole and a little heart.
12. Little hearts: outlines. Trace the five little hearts. You can draw the small ones by hand: precision isn't needed here.
13. Little hearts: folds. Four of the hearts have a fold line down the middle — a dash-dot line. The fifth, with a small heart inside, is the seal: it has no fold.
14. Color: stickers. Color the picture's background pink and the hearts red. Outline the ribbon's edge in pink. You'll write the words on the notes and the ribbon later.
15. Color: pocket and tag. Color every other stripe on the pocket pink, and the heart and the little heart on the tag red.
16. Red. Color the areas that match this color. Move the marker in one direction — you’ll get fewer streaks.
17. Pink. Now the areas that match this color.

Cut

18. Cut out: heart and band — 2 pcs. Cut out the heart along the solid line: reach the notch between the lobes with two cuts, one from each side. The band is the strip under the heart.
19. Cut out: stickers — 4 pcs. Cut out the four stickers: two notes, the picture and the ribbon. The ribbon has V-shaped notches at both ends.
20. Cut out: pocket and tag — 2 pcs. Cut out the pocket and the tag. The semicircular notch on the pocket is for your finger — it's how you pull the tag out.
21. Cut out: little hearts — 5 pcs. Cut out the five little hearts. The small ones are easier to cut with the tips of the scissors, turning the paper as you go.

Fold

22. Score the folds. Place the heart face up. Using a ruler, score all four fold lines with an empty pen — the folds will come out straight.
23. Folds 3 and 4 — both ways. Fold the top of the heart toward you along line 3, crease it, unfold it and fold it the other way. Do the same with the tip along line 4.
24. Fold 1 — left part. Fold the left part toward you along line 1 and crease the fold. Its edge stops 3/16 in short of line 2.
25. Fold 2 — right part. Fold the right part along line 2 — over the left one. You get a strip about 2½ in wide.
26. Fold 3 — top. Fold the top of the strip down along the existing fold 3 — all three layers at once. Crease it harder.
27. Fold 4 — tip. Fold the tip up along fold 4: it covers everything, like the flap of an envelope. Its point lands at the top edge of the little envelope.
28. Unfold the heart. Unfold the heart again, face up. The fold lines and numbers under the pink marker won’t erase — don’t rub them: the folds show anyway. Use the eraser only where the pencil isn’t colored over.
29. Hearts — in half. Fold the four little hearts that have a fold line in half color side in and open them slightly. Don’t fold the seal heart.

Glue

30. Notes. Write your own words on the notes with a fine pen. Apply glue to the whole back and glue them into the left and right middle squares, following the frames.
31. Picture and ribbon. Write on the ribbon. Glue the picture onto the right lobe of the heart and the ribbon under the notch between the lobes.
32. Pocket. Lay the pocket face down on scrap paper. Run the edge of the glue stick along three edges — left, bottom, right — making a strip of glue no wider than 3/16 in, then press the pocket onto its frame with the notch at the top.
33. Tag. Write a name or a date on the tag and slide it into the pocket. It should go in and out freely.
34. Little hearts. Apply glue only on the fold, on the back. Glue three hearts onto the left lobe and one onto the tip: the halves stay raised.

Assemble

35. Fold the envelope. Wait a minute for the glue to set. Fold the heart along the finished folds in the same order: left part, right part, top, tip.
36. Band. Lay the band with the dashed line down, and place the envelope in the middle of it, flap up. Wrap both ends over the flap and glue them overlapping: put the glue on the tip of the band, not on the envelope.
37. Seal. Glue the seal heart over the seam of the band: it will cover the join. Put the glue on the heart itself, not on the envelope.

Check

38. Open it up. Slide the band down and take it off. Open the envelope in four moves: tip, top, right part, left part — the hearts inside will lift up by themselves.

Done. The Folding Heart is done. Fold it again, put the band on and give it as a gift — they'll open it themselves.

Make it with your phone camera

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