Business card, cubed

Inasmuch as I taught how to make an origami cube as one of the practicals when I did the “train the trainer” course, it occurred to me to do the same with my business cards. It doesn’t hurt that the business cards have a large logo on the back:

Six business cards folded in a cube.

Here’s how:

  • Folding one business card around another.For each of six business cards, fold the business card around another (template) business card to make a square middle section with each end of the short edges of the card folded up. It helps to keep the square square if the short edge of the card you are folding around is aligned on the long edge of the card you are folding (easiest when you have a seventh card for use when folding the sixth card). It also helps the tightness of the finished cube if you make the folds as close to a card’s height apart as you can.
  • Assemble the cards as shown below. Each successive card is added at right-angles to the previous cards so the folded short edges of a card fit against the long edges of other cards.
    The cube is shown being assembled on a flat surface for the sake of clarity, but sometimes it’s easiest to hold the partially assembled cube in your hands as you go
  • If the assembled cube is just a bit loose, it can help if you gently press the edges and faces of the cube as you move it around in your cupped hands for a while. I’m not sure why it helps, except maybe it helps if the faces are slightly concave, and it certainly won’t help a terminally loose cube.