How to Create a Simple Tea Bag Folding Design

Tea bag folding originally used the wrappers, not the bags themselves.

Tea bag folding utilizes the wrappers not the actual soft tea bags. According to the Origami Resource Center, Tiny van der Plaas may have invented this type of folding in Holland. She needed a quick birthday card but ran out of paper, so she folded some leftover tea wrappers. The difference between tea bag folding and Japanese origami is that tea bag folding uses glue to secure the folded units together rather than interlocked folds. To create a simple tea bag folding design, use the kite fold with square paper to construct your craft.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• 8 sheets of square paper
• Glue
• Card stock

1. Place one sheet of paper with the color side down on your table so it looks like a diamond.

2. Fold it in half so the right and left sides meet. You should have a triangle shape.

3. Open it up again so you have a crease down the center of your diamond-shaped paper.

4. Fold the left side of the diamond to the center crease.

5. Fold the right side to the center crease. It should look like a kite.

6. Turn the whole thing over so the entire kite is the colored side of the paper. This is the basic kite fold.

7. Repeat this kite fold with the other seven sheets of square paper. You should have eight kites in total. Once you have completed this, you will create the final arrangement.

8. Place your card stock on your table.

9. Place one kite in the center of your card stock. You will arrange the kites side by side in a circle pattern so that the bottom sides meet. The points of the top of the kite stick out and do not meet the other kites.

10. Place another kite next to the first kite so they are side by side.

11. Arrange the rest of the kites in this fashion to form a circle pattern on the card stock. Be sure they are all facing the same way with the colored side of the paper up.

12. Glue the paper underneath once you have created the design so it is secured to the card stock.

Tips & Warnings

• You can try this folding technique with real tea wrappers. If you don't have them, use colored square paper.

• This design is called a rosette, and you can experiment with other designs using the basic kits fold.

References

• Origami Resource Center: Tea Bag Folding
• Origami Resource Center: Tea Bag Folding--Kite Fold

Resources

• "The Times"; The Teabag, a British Favourite Born by Mistake, Simon de Bruxelles, June 2008