Matthew (Matthew 9)

Hugely inspired by Mina’s flexagons over on Flame Creative Kids, this craft (a Tetra-tetra Flexagon) uses the same folding out idea to tell a story in 3 pictures.

This one piece of paper construction is lovely and tactile to play with. I’ve left the back plain so you can add a child s name or any other info onto it.

I made the one pictured by printing on 2 pieces of paper stuck together after my printer had a tantrum, they work much better when you print on both sides of one page. Because of this, I’ve not given a PDF but 2 images for you to print. (Image 1, Image 2)

Print the template so that as you flip the paper by the longer edge you will see one picture appears upside down.

Start by cutting out your shape, it’s important you cut and fold along the lines cleanly for this to work. Fold the page along all the lines working each fold both ways.

We need to separate the central 2 squares to make the mechanism. First fold the page in half and cut the 2 middle folds.

Then separate the 2 white squares. These white squares will be the back of the story.Keep the side with the white squares facing you.

Take the long tongue piece you have just separated and wrap it under and round the end of the paper. You will see when it is correct as the white squares line up.

Now take the other end and wrap that under until you have 6 white squares facing you. take a small piece of sticky tape and attach the middle pieces together. While this may have sounded complicated it’s usually immediately obvious if it is wrong and it’s only 1 piece of tape to remove!