Placing origami postcards inside Walgreens with a walgreenslistens receipt

Transform the fun of tourist postcards into something beyond their normal function. Buy a tourist postcard and then fold it into a paper origami and leave it at the same postcard rack in the store. Make sure to leave the receipt with it too, so people know it’s paid for.

This sounds like a fun project, so I gave it a go. First step is selecting the postcard. Make sure to pick one that is bright and colorful. You want your origami to look sharp!

When buying the postcard, remember to accept the receipt. Especially if the receipt is from Walgreens, because it will have that wagcares survey on it. When I bought the card for 64 cents, the cashier asked if I wanted the receipt. At first I declined, because really. 64 cents–who needs a receipt for that? But then I quickly realized, WHY YES! I do need that receipt! It’s an essential part of this art exploration.

To fold this into an origami, you’ll need the postcard to be square. Since almost all postcards are rectangular, not square, you’ll need to rip off part of the postcard.

For the card I selected, I opted to rip off the top of the postcard where it says CHICAGO. I’m not sure why, it just seemed to make sense.

Now that you have a square card, go ahead and fold it. Folding a postcard into an origami butterfly is rather challenging. The paper is just too thick. The initial folds are fine, but the later folds are like trying to close your suitcase at the end of a shopping vacation. I was putting all my weight onto the folds to make this butterfly happen.

If you bought your postcard from Walgreens, and you have the time, make sure you go to www.wagcares.com to fill out the survey for the $3,000 sweepstakes; and say something nice about your Walgreens cashier.

Now, the fun part. Put the origami back onto the rack! The Walgreens where I purchased my postcard is the flagship store in downtown Chicago. Their postcard rack is right by the back cashiers and the greeter. I kinda ignored the greeter when I came back into the store, hoping he wouldn’t notice me.

But butterfly origami works perfectly with a postcard rack, because you can fit the slot of it’s wings into the wire frame. Make sure to include that walgreenslistens.com survey receipt too, so people don’t think you just stole a card and folded into an origami!

Now take some pics and share! If you do this project, make sure to let me know!