We like party tricks and betchas, and you can find a great selection of them throughout this blog. Today we’d like to offer you another one which has won us many drinks, and much kudos from awestruck children!

Grab a postcard, or a postcard sized piece of paper and challenge someone whether they think that they could cut a hole in the postcard big enough for them to step right through from one side to the other. Unless the postcard you have bought is a couple of feet on each side, most people will suggest that it would be impossible without cheating. You, however, know otherwise, and on the basis that should you be successful you will be plied with drinks, admiration or whatever else tickles your fancy, you proceed to prove them wrong.

In fact it is perfectly possible to cut a hole in a standard postcard sized piece of paper that is so large you can easily step through it – the secret is how you cut the hole. To help you I’ve created some diagrams which should help to demonstrate how to cut the postcard, and I’d strongly suggest that you have a practice run first so you know what you’re doing before you lay down your challenge, and your reputation.

Step 1

Grab yourself a postcard, or a sheet of paper about postcard sized. Half an A4 sheet is fine, but a sheet from a notepad is often good enough too. It helps if the paper isn’t too thin and liable to tear easily though.

Step 2

Fold the postcard in half lengthways, along the longest edge.

Step 3

Cut a series of straight lines upwards from the open edge towards the folded crease, making sure you stop about a centimetre from the fold. Each cut should be about a centimetre apart (although if you’re able to cut them a little closer than this, all the better.)

Step 4

Cut a series of straight lines downwards from the fold towards the outer edges at the bottom, being careful not to cut all the way to the edge of the paper. Each cut downwards should be in between two of the cuts you made previously going upwards.

Step 5

Cut along the folded crease, between the first vertical cut and the last vertical cut. So effectively you’re cutting along the entire crease, stopping just short of each end (the grey section of the crease as shown in the diagram)

Step 6

Unfold the paper, and step through the hole! That’s it! Amazingly those few cuts will create a hole in the postcard that’s so big an adult can easily step through it, as the edges of the postcard become almost like springs, stretching out to create a huge loop.

If you have any problems with this, just ask us using the comments box below. It’s a great trick though, and once you’ve learned it and tried it out yourself it’s one you can easily do anywhere, anytime. If you get really good at doing it then you can even challenge people with napkins or menus when you’re out and about. You can also find that once you’ve finished with it, by making a break in the postcard and turning it from a big loop into a long string you can easily create quite pretty decorations!

You could even go on to teach people how to do this, and challenge them to try it for themselves. Perhaps you might like to see how small a piece of paper you can actually use to create a hole you can climb through? Huge kudos and respect to the first of our readers to successfully climb through a hole in a credit card sized sheet of paper!