Capturing Nature: A Whimsical Mushroom Lightbulb Fold

Welcome back to the blog!

As members of my book folding Facebook group will know, we kicked off the year with a wonderfully earthy theme for January: “Mushrooms.”

When we first chose the theme, I thought it might be quite niche, but oh my goodness, I was wrong! Once I started looking for inspiration images to turn into patterns for the group, I couldn’t stop. The variety of fungi out there is incredible. At one point, I had gathered over 50 potential images and I genuinely struggled to whittle them down to a manageable amount for the free patterns list!

Out of that huge pile of mushroom images, one design really captured my imagination to make myself. It was a slightly surreal, whimsical image of tiny mushrooms encapsulated inside a glass lightbulb. There was just something magical about it—like capturing a tiny, secret piece of the forest floor in a jar. I knew that was the one I had to make.

For the technical side of things, this is a cut and fold design with a 180 fold. Using the 180 fold technique is crucial here because it is what allows that extra card stock to be inserted smoothly, resulting in a much neater final finish for the design.

I have to say, I’m really pleased with how this one turned out. After staring at some very complex, long-term projects recently, it was an absolute joy to work on a lovely, quick project that came together so smoothly. It is surprisingly satisfying to see that little terrarium take shape within the pages.

Want this book? (Or more mushrooms!)

If you love this whimsical little design as much as I do, the finished book is now available looking for a forever home over on my Etsy store. Alternatively, if you fancy having a go at folding this magical little bulb yourself, the specific pattern for this project is also available to buy in the shop.

Visit my Etsy shop here to give this finished mushroom bulb a forever home, or pick up the pattern to fold it yourself!

However, if this design isn’t quite right for you but you are loving the fungi theme, don’t forget about that huge pile of images I mentioned earlier! There is a fantastic collection of other mushroom-themed patterns available for free right now in the files section of my Facebook group. Do pop over, join the community, and browse the collection to find your next project!

Click here to join our lovely Facebook community and dive into the free pattern files!

Clare x