Christmas Cards Folding Adventure

Before I talk about my Christmas card design, I want to explain what a bone folder is and what it does. A bone folder is a dull point object that’s typically made from the bone of a cow, deer, or other large bone animals. The dull point is used to make creases on a piece of paper. Where you made the crease, you can now fold the paper over without fear of the paper cracking or tearing in half. The cracking usually happens to thick paper where the fiber is packed very dense. Lighter-stock paper like regular printer paper doesn’t have this problem because it’s very light and thin.

This year, I was asked to design a Christmas card for my boss’ wife, Noel Huebner, who was my client for the Watershed project. The design should focus around photos of their kids Paul and Aynsley. She wanted it on a heavy stock paper and thus, folding would be required. The print order was ONLY 150 cards so I figured I can help save on cost by folding them myself. I have a bone folder after all and have folded so many times I can do it in my sleep. The day came for me to fold them and…I left the bone folder at home.

“NOOOOOO!” I thought. What am I gonna DOOOOOO? I tried using a place fork but it was too soft! The edge keeps eroding away. I then tried using the dull point on a scissor. It worked okay, but was still too sharp. Then I thought of something dull, round, and durable: a quarter! It worked great. If I had my bone folder, it would’ve been done a lot faster and my fingers wouldn’t have been so sore, but now I know the power of the quarter. You can see my process below.