Posts tagged Origami

I love a fun gift topper, and these little accordion hearts are both fun to receive and fun to make. I think the three dimensional aspect of it is what makes it stand out – literally.

Materials:

• Construction paper
• String
• Accordion-heart-template (Download)

ONE: trace the template on a half piece of paper

TWO: fold it – accordion style – with a fold at about each half inch.

THREE: tie the bundle right in the middle with string to secure.

FOUR: fan out each end and tape with double stick tape.

Tie or stick it onto the wrapped package of your choice and you’re ready to wow!

*Credit: House of Ernest

Guest Blog by: Jessica Jones

 It only takes a minute to make simple origami arrows. They can be used as magnets to hold up your stuff.

I added self-adhesive magnet tape to these, available from craft stores. You could also chop up some of those free magnets that come in the mail with advertisements on them and glue those on.

The arrows can also be turned into thumbtacks for your pin board.

Lift up the arrow head flap, poke a tack through the paper, and stick the head back down on top

How to fold a paper arrow:

 Start with a square piece of paper. Origami paper is easiest to fold because it’s thin. If you don’t mind a bit of wrestling, you can also use regular printer paper like I did for the red and orange arrows. Those were made from 3” squares. The patterned purple arrows were made from 2.5” squares.

I’ll add captions below each photo.

With the pretty side down, fold a square paper in half and open it again. (Or as Maria suggested in the comments, just press a little pinch to mark the center. Then your finished arrow won’t have a crease running through the center.)

With the pretty side down, fold a square paper in half and open it again. (Or as Maria suggested in the comments, just press a little pinch to mark the center. Then your finished arrow won’t have a crease running through the center.)

 Fold the top and bottom edges inward to meet the center crease.

 

Fold the pointed end over.


 

Turn the paper over so the point is hidden, then align it so that the point is positioned like the pink line in the diagram (though the point is on the underside and not visible.) Grab the top edge of the rectangle and fold it down, making a valley fold along the dotted line. 

The result should look like this. Half of the pointed triangle is exposed.


 

Rotate the paper 90 degrees counterclockwise. (Well, you don’t have to, but I found it easier and that’s what the photos show!) Press down with your fingernail at the point where the top layer of paper meets the triangle. Poke your other finger in between the two layers of the flap to open up a little pocket, at the same time folding the long top edge of the flap down to meet the center crease. 

Squash the resulting triangle flat.

It should look like this.


 

Repeat on the bottom side, folding the bottom edge upward to meet the center crease.

It should look like this.


 

Guest Blog: Jessica Jones

Here’s a quick little origami project that’s fun to do with patterned paper: heart-shaped bookmarks that slip onto page corners. You could mail somebody a couple for Valentine’s Day.

Each heart requires a half sheet of square origami paper. (My paper was 5” square, so my starting piece after cutting in half was a 5” x 2.5” rectangle.)

With the patterned side to the outside, fold the rectangle in half lengthwise.

Then fold it in half width-wise to mark the center line, and open again.

Fold one side up at a 45 degree angle, so the edge aligns with the center.

Repeat with the other side.

Turn the paper over. Fold the top downward. You can eyeball this; about 1/3 of the top section gets folded down.

Fold in the corners to form a heart shape. The little pocket at the bottom can fit over page corners if you use this as a bookmark.

* Photo Credits: How About Orange

Making paper Christmas decorations is one of my favorite things this time of year. I found instructions here for making an 8-pointed origami star and tried it out. Lovely!

You can make garlands with them. (The back sides aren’t as pretty, so hang the garland against a wall or put two stars back to back.) Or hang individual ones on a Christmas tree.

Or make paper stars to use instead of traditional bows on gifts. If you skip the last step in the tutorial, the back side is flat and easy to tape to a package. These will lay flat for packing presents in a box, and then you can fluff them up again when you put the gifts under the tree.

Instructions here

(Source: zazzle.com)

WHAT YOU NEED:

A Square piece of paper or tissue paper

1: Fold the piece of paper corner to corner.

2: Unfold.

3: Fold in the opposite direction.

4: You will be left with two lines going from corner to corner, this will help you to line up your folds.

5: Fold the top corner to the middle of the paper.

6: Fold the bottom corner to the top of the piece of paper.

7: Take the entire side of the paper and fold it upwards against the middle line.

8: Repeat for the other side.

9: You now have the basic heart shape.

10: Flip the heart over, and fold the side corner inwards.

11. Repeat on the other side.

12. Fold the top corner down.

13: Repeat on the opposite side.

14: Flip the heart over, and it is complete.

You may want to secure with a little glue or tape… place in a book to flatten. The piece of paper you use will make a difference. I used tissue paper which is prone to creasing and very delicate, a thicker type of paper may be more suited to your project.

* Photo credits: Lou at Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

(Source: zazzle.com)

Turns out it’s easy to make a bow from a single square of scrap paper. No glue or tape needed; just scissors to make a couple of cuts. 

These are folded from graph paper, a piece of origami paper, and a chopped-up Martha Stewart magazine. I trimmed the paper into 6” squares and followed the excellent instructions posted at Let’s Create. 

Photo Credit: How About Orange (Jessica Jones)

(Source: zazzle.com)

Guest Blogger: Chelle

This simple to make star project would be a festive decoration for a casual wedding reception or bridal party. It’s also a fun project to decorate the house this holiday season.  Who doesn’t like an easy to make paper star? As with all simple crafts, they usually look great in a cluster and this star is perfect for hanging with others of different sizes and colors. You likely have the material at home if you use recycled paper. And kids love to do them without much adult help. Here’s how to make your own:

Turn the paper over and fold as in the picture below.

Mark with a pencil a little less from the border to the middle. Do it on all four sides.

Cut with scissors from the edge to your pencil mark on all four sides.

Glue every other side on the folded flaps.

Pull the unglued side over the glued side. 

The glue is missing in this image, but this is the way to attach the 2 stars together.

(Source: zazzle.com)