Add a paper candle or flower and wish someone a Happy Birthday.
It's not quite origami, but it reminds me of origami baubles or origami Christmas balls.
Easy to hand cut, or download file set to machine cut.
How to Make a Pleated Cupcake and Icing
What crafty librarians do in their spare time....
The other day my co-worker was stuck in the middle of the wordless origami diagram for this mini-book. You know that place. You're cruising right along and then suddenly it seems like several steps are missing in the directions. Anyway, we finally worked it out, and over the last couple days I've been folding and unfolding little books, trying to simplify the process.
It's definitely easier to make with paper that's white on one side and patterned on the other.
Begin with a square piece of paper. Fold it in half, then in fourths. Do this both directions. When you are done the folds will divide the paper into 16 squares.
Folding on the creases you've made, flip the bottom quarter strip of the paper up and glue it, with glue stick, to the strip of squares above it.
Cut along the folds dividing these white squares. These will be your pages.
Turn the paper over. The pages should be closer to you and the uncut part away from you.
Fold down the top quarter strip of the paper along the crease line.
Crease the top corners diagonally and then unfold.
Grasp the left hand loose corner and pull it to the center of the paper. Do the same for the right hand loose corner.
Flatten the piece sticking up in the center, using the vertical creases already made.
Flip paper over.
Fold in the two sides.
Rub a bit of glue stick on the triangular fold on the left side.
Grasp the left hand pages and pull them up and toward the right, opening the triangle fold at the top left.
Flatten.
Turn the pages to the left.
Dab a little glue on the right hand triangle. Grasp the right hand pages and pull them up and to the left, opening the right hand triangle. Flatten.
Turn these pages to the right.
Close the book and crease the spine well.
Try making really tiny books from sticky notes. I used the sticky part to glue the pages. The tricky part is setting in the creases without sticking the wrong parts together! (Position the sticky note with the glue horizontally across the bottom, glue side down. Crease the Post It in half horizontally by pulling the top of the sticky note down to the bottom edge. Flip the sticky note over and fold up the bottom to the center, gluing the "pages". Fold the top in half again, horizontally. Next crease the vertical folds; then cut the pages and finish as above.)
Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: pop up cards, movable and mechanical cards, digital crafts and unusual papercrafts.
Impatien Ball design from Ornamental Origami: Exploring 3D Geometric Designs by Meenakshi Mukerji, instructions posted with permission.
Select 12 origami papers. I used 4 each of three different colors.
Folding the units
Precrease in half each way, and diagonally each way.
Turn over and fold points into center.
Unfold the top and bottom, then fold each point toward the center. Fold the side points toward the outside.
Fold down the top, fold up the bottom. The points will be inside these folds.
Turn over. Fold all four points to the center.
Unfold. Fold the points toward the center up to the creases you just made.
Fold all four sides toward the center. The points will be inside these folds.
Flip it over and check that the back looks like this. Two opposite corners will have pockets, and the other two will have flaps. Here, I am holding a flap.
Flip piece over to front side. Crease and uncrease along the vertical and horizontal midlines.
Crease and uncrease each corner, folding them to the center.
Pinch the center of each side so the V folds stand up.
Assembling the globe
Attach two pieces together by slipping the flap of one unit into the pocket of the other, wrong sides facing each other. I use a bit of gluestick on the flap to keep it from slipping out of the pocket.
Slide four units together in a cross. Make another cross from another four units and set it aside.
Folding the cross in half slightly, attach another unit (green) to the two halves at the end of the cross.
Here you see it from the wrong side (inside of the globe).
Here you see it from the right side (the outside of the globe).
Attach the other cross assembly to the remaining two sides of the single (green) unit.
Inside view.
Outside view.
Rotate the globe 1/4 turn away from you and attach another single unit (green) to the next available sides of the two cross assemblies. Here it is pink on the left and orange on the right.
Here is the inside view.
Attach the bottom half of the single (green) unit to the next open sides. (Orange on the left, pink on the right.)
Add a third single unit, and then the fourth single unit, in the same way. Sliding in the last two flaps can be frustrating. Just keep working at it!
If you have a battery operated tealight, you can slash one of the units and stick the "flame" through to light the globe.
Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: pop up cards, movable and mechanical cards, digital crafts and unusual papercrafts.