The Miura fold card – Artfully Layered

The Miura fold card using the Artfully Composed bundle. Have you heard of a Miura fold? If you haven’t then here’s a little factoid for you.

Factoid

Back in the 70s, Kōryō Miura, a Japanese astrophysicist developed a method of rigidly folding a flat surface through the tesselation of parallelograms. This means using a crease pattern,  subdividing the surface into parallelograms so that it fits into a much smaller volume. It was applied to solar panel arrays being launched into Space. Since then, it has had many other applications eg, surgical devices, flat foldable furniture and electrical storage. These days, Japan has applied it to Cartology and you can buy maps using the Miura fold.

Today we’re using it in a simplifed version, with only the one parallelogram!

In the photo below, you can see it folded flat so you can write in the centre panel. It also folds into a card measuring 5-3/4″ x 3-3/4″ so it will easily fit in an ordinary C6 envelop.

I added an extra piece on the back to give the card added stability, otherwise it won’t stand up!

Card Measurements

If the length of your card stock only goes up to 11″, so long as your 3 panels are easily divisible by 3, then you can adjust your panels accordingly. In Europe, I was able to have each panel 3-3/4″ wide. If you’re in the USA, or Canada, you could reduce the width of your panel to 3-1/2″ and consequently your card base will then be 10-1/2″ x 5-1/2″.

Metric measurements are in brackets

1. Basic White Thick card base : cut 11-1/4″ x 5-3/4″ (27 cm x 14 cm).
2. Long side on top, score at 3-3/4″, 7-1/2″ (9 cm, 18 cm)
3. Rotate card stock so short side is on top and make a mark on vertical score line at 2″ (4 cm)
4. Turn card stock 180 degrees and mark the other score line at 2″ (4 cm)
5. Please refer to video to see how to score the diagonal lines to create the Miura effect.
6. Cut Basic White Thick : 1 piece 5-3/4″ x 3-3/4″ (14 cm x 9 cm)

Create Mat layer templates

I find trying to cut mat layers on angles just by reducing the size of the card stock/dsp doesn’t work for me. The angles are always slight off no matter how hard I try. My solution is to cut templates the same size as the card base, then measuring and cutting 1/8″ off on all 4 sides.

1. Cut Mat layer from 5-3/4″ x 3-3/4″ .
2. Measure 2″ in on long side.
3. Cut from 2″ mark to corner on short side.
4. Mark 1/8″ on all 4 sides.
5. Cut off 1/8″ on all 4 sides as marked.

If you need additional layers, repeat process and adjust accordingly.

Supply list

Listed below is the supply list. Just click on the picture to take you directly to the item in my online store.

Product List

Artfully Layered Bundle (English) [157761]	Artfully Layered Cling Stamp Set (English) [157752]	Tropical Layers Dies [157760]
Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820]	Basic White A4 Thick Cardstock [159230]	Artfully Composed 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [157750]
Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz [131290]	Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575]	Versamark Pad [102283]
Basics Embossing Powders [155554]	Heat Tool – Uk Plug [129054]	Rhinestone Basic Jewels [144220]

Crafting hugs – have a lovely weekend!