Free Kirigami Patterns

If you love the art of folding and cutting paper, you'll be excited to learn that the Internet is an excellent resource for free Kirigami patterns. You won't believe all the things you can make with these great designs.

How Kirigami Differs from Origami

If you've ever tried traditional origami, you probably know that the elaborate three-dimensional designs are created by folding paper over and over. There is no cutting involved. However, with Kirigami, the scissors are your friend. This variation breaks one of the big rules of origami, but in doing so, it opens up a wealth of design options.

In addition to giving you more choices, cutting also makes many projects easier. Kirigami is a great way to introduce children to the art of paper folding, since it can be easier for little fingers. As with all cutting projects, it's important to supervise kids until they are comfortable with the use of scissors.

Where to Find Free Kirigami Patterns

While origami is an ancient art and has shown up in books for centuries, Kirigami is more recent. It came to the United States in the 1960s, and since then, it's taken the paper folding world by storm. These days, you can find hundreds of Kirigami patterns on the Internet, and many are available free of charge.

The following sites offer free patterns for Kirigami projects:

Origami Resource Center is one of the best places to find patterns. This site has free directions for projects that fit a variety of skill levels. You can find Kirigami instructions for children, as well as more elaborate designs for the experienced Kirigami artist.
Cut Out and Keep is a crafting site with an excellent section on Kirigami and origami. Here, you'll find directions for making Kirigami butterflies, spring flower cut-outs, and other folded paper projects.
Wonder How-To has a great video tutorial on making a Kirigami pop-up card that features a beautiful dragonfly design. The video format makes these directions very easy to understand and follow.
Yasutomo has an excellent set of instructions for making a Japanese maple leaf using Kirigami. This type of paper folding is perfect for leaf designs, and once you master this one, you may want to create your own.
Easy Cut Pop Up is a paid Kirigami pattern site, but they offer a free trial pattern. You can use this pattern to create a pop-up card, and if you enjoy the project, you may decide to pay the fee to download more projects. These designs are extremely elaborate.

LoveToKnow Origami has several articles about Kirigami patterns you can download for free. Some articles contain free instructions for making a Kirigami project:

More Free Pattern Resources

Although the Internet has a great selection of free patterns, you still may not find the design you have in mind. If you can't find what you need online, try your local library. It's been almost 50 years since Kirigami first became a hit, and there are dozens of Kirigami pattern books on the market. You can find many of these at your library. If your library does not have a title you need, you can request they get the book through inter-library loan.

These Kirigami pattern books are very popular: