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INTRODUCTION

Kirigami, the creative art of papercutting, is a surprisingly easy craft that requires only paper, a pair of scissors, and sometimes glue. With these simple means anyone can create greeting cards, calendars, and unusual gift wraps that will be welcome year round.

The word kirigami suggests its connection to Japan: kiri means "cutting" and gami means "paper." For many designs a piece of paper is folded one or more times, with cuts added through all layers. When the paper is unfolded an unexpected symmetric design is revealed. As may be guessed, kirigami is related to origami, the art of folding paper, but many people find it to be easier.

Cutting paper seems to be an instinctive pleasure. At an early age most children like to snip paper into small pieces. Before long they design pictures by pasting the shapes on a background. In Kirigami Greeting Cards and Gift Wrap this experience has been expanded for enjoyment by older children as well as adults, who can achieve magic results with just a few cuts.

Papercutting is well recognized to provide educational benefits in the areas of art, math, graphic design, and hand-eye coordination. When expanding to spatial relationships, two kinds of symmetry can be observed: line symmetry, which reflects mirror images, and rotational symmetry, which moves around a central point.

You will find step-by-step directions for making birthday and holiday cards, as well as many wonderful ideas for wrapping gifts in unusual ways, all of which can provide many hours of fun for family and friends.

My objective in writing Kirigami Greeting Cards and Gift Wrap is to provide projects that are simple to make, though they may look complex, and that will appeal to all ages.