As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tea Bag Folded Quilt Card Front

This design was the result of an inquiry on Splitcoast Stampers for directions to make this card.

I started messing around with tea bag folded squares and eventually came up with a reasonable facsimile, if I do say so myself (and I do.)

How to make a quilt-look tea bag fold card

I used 16 squares of 3" square paper.

I found it was much easier to keep track of where I was going when I used two different papers.

Fold each square diagonally, first one way and then the other. Unfold. Fold the paper in half horizontally. Reverse fold the two ends along the diagonal folds. Here are more detailed instructions on folding this "waterbomb base."

tea bag fold quilt card

tea bag fold quilt card

Create a unit out of four triangles.

Arrange the four triangles as shown.

tea bag fold quilt card

Slide the corner of one triangle into the pocket of the adjacent triangle.

tea bag fold quilt card

tea bag fold quilt card

Push tightly together.

tea bag fold quilt card

Make three more units of four triangles.

Slide the units together. Each triangle point slides into the adjacent pocket. (Some of the "pockets" are just flaps that you can lift up.)

tea bag fold quilt card

tea bag fold quilt card

tea bag fold quilt card

Trim and frame. You can put a brad or jewel or what-have-you on each corner. There tends to be a little hole there no matter how much you shove the pieces together.

tea bag fold quilt card

Set on the diagonal if you prefer.

tea bag fold quilt card

Figuring the size of your card is actually really easy. Each unit ends up the same size as the piece of paper you started with. So, to make a 6" square card, you can make 4 units from 3" paper, as I did. You could also make 9 units of 2" paper. (That would be 3 units on each side.) If you're really a glutton for punishment you could make 36 units from 1" squares, and arrange them 6 x 6.)