Iris love a Diamond!

Wow April is ending and May is here.  Before we know it Summer will be here.  This week at Sweet Sassy Diva the challenge for the Design Team  is to use a Diamond shape or gem.  I decided to use an idea I had for awhile but hadn't tried.  Last year, I took some monthly classes at my local LSS to learn Iris Folding.  I have always thought it was so pretty and the teacher is also a Cricut fan so she designs many of her cards with Cricut shapes.   Now I don't expect anyone to learn how to Iris Fold by reading my tutorial.  I am just trying to introduce it to you and if you are interested encourage you to get a book or take a class.

The last class we had at the LSS the teacher  showed  us how to make our own Iris Folding designs.  

So I decided for the challenge to practice the things I learned and make a card with the ring from page 56 of Once Upon a Princess.  For the ring I cut the shape in the middle of a 5 x 7 rectangle and then used the ring portion of the ring.  

Here is the completed card

The stamp "A Cut Above the rest " is from a huge set of sentiment stamps I got at HSN.

Here is what the card and shape looks like cut out with the ring below it.  

The ring is cut out of silver shiny paper.  

Next you trace the shape out  regular paper.  

There are then patterns that are common to Iris Folding.  There are a lot of great books on Iris Folding that have not only completed patterns but shape designs you can use.  

I lay the triangle pattern under the diamond tracing and copy the lines.  I then number the spaces starting at the right and going around and around till I get to the center. 

My pattern is then placed below the card face down  and taped together so it doesn't slide.  

I then cut different strips of paper to fold over and tape to design. The triangle design used 3 papers. 

This is how you start.

As you continue the pages overlap and you tape each down.  

At the end you tape a hologram piece of paper in the center.

I use pieces cut from gift bags or paper from the 99 cent store.

I tape down any lose ends.

This is what it looks like when it is turned over and I finished the card.  

I hope you found this interesting .  It really is a fun technique.  

I hope you will come back this week and see what all the designers at Sweet Sassy Diva create with the diamond shape challenge.  Happy Craftin!