Make easy DIY wall art from folded paper | How About Orange

August 13, 2012

Make easy DIY wall art from folded paper

Hello, all! I'm back from my week off. It was a lovely break during which Alex and I did pretty much nothing except read mystery novels, eat delicious food, enjoy the outdoors, and wander around. (That was me with the mystery novels. Alex appeared to be reading books containing charts and graphs. To each his own.)

I folded some paper, too. For an easy wall art project, try folding squares of colored paper and arranging them in a grid. I used part of a pack of multi-colored origami paper for this, but you could use any colored papers that match your room or your shop. It's cheap, simple, and the 3D sculptural look is fun.

Find the center point on a square of paper by bending it in half and pressing a crease at the midpoint. (Don't make a sharp fold along the entire length.) Open the square, rotate 90 degrees, and repeat.

The center of the square is where the two creases meet.

Fold each corner of the square to the center point.

When you've got a collection of squares folded, arrange them on a piece of foam board or cardboard and secure them in rows with double-stick tape. Done!

I would love it if someone would cover an entire wall with white squares. The light and shadows would be beautiful. Though that wall would be easily smooshed when a person leaned against it, alas.

To make the paper ball in the photo, click here.

38 comments:

Beth said...

I love this idea!

Grandma G said...

Welcome back! Gee, what a simple but beautiful idea!

Mum

Needle little Balance said...

Oh I love it! I see a quilt with that design in the future!

Dorkys Ramos said...

They look so pretty grouped together like this. Look at you still doing projects during your vacation. I bet you were thinking up blog ideas the whole time.

Jessica Jones said...

Nope. Just the last day. :)

Kate said...

that looks great! I'm totally on board with the mysteries...charts dob;t sound very vacation-y

cindyann said...

Great look! I wonder how it would look in fabric??? I may have to try it.

LimeRiot said...

Welcome back! What a great project to highlight the rich colors and patterns in origami paper!

Amna said...

Welcome back, this is such a super and simple idea. I see an ombre wall using this technique. Thanks for the idea.

Megumi said...

This is great! I can do it with my niece this weekend, with my students at school!

Suzanne said...

Glad you had such a lovely rest. The origami is delightful.

kansasgirl1 said...

This is great, the colors just beautiful! Had to Pin!

lisa :: the red thread said...

It's lovely and so simple. My daughter did a very similar thing with smaller pieces of origami paper, which I framed. You've gotta love DIY affordable art!

http://theredthreadblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/diy-affordable-art-part-3-origami.html

Jessica Jones said...

Oooh, lovely!

PanicaLab said...

This looks really nice and happy!! Thank you for sharing this lovely idea!

Marleen Derweduwen said...

so simply and so beautiful!

Danni@SiloHillFarm said...

Oh that is seriously eye-catching! I love it...nice job! Coming over from Emmaline Bags & Patterns.

Amandine said...

Hurray for more modern, clean & simple papercrafts! My new apartment still has bare walls, I do not own any art, and I can make that in 1/2 hour easily. Hmmmmmmmm...!

Lisha @ 1house1couple said...

what a cool idea. I never would have thought to do this :)

I like the white on one side and the color on the other (really makes it).

~Lisha

Handmade aJ said...

Lovely tutorial! I have linked to it on my blog - ajperspective.com/blog! Thanks!

Louise (Laid Off Mom) said...

Beautiful! And so very easy!! I think the white wall would look great as well! I used to make these in middle school as lil' fortune teller readers, did you ever make those?

Unknown said...

waw! I love it, I will try.
thanks for sharing.
xoxo Luisella

Heather - dollarstorecrafts said...

My 6 year-old son saw one of these paper squares folded on my desk and took it upon himself to figure out how to make one himself - including cutting a paper square. He added a smiley face to his version:

http://instagram.com/p/OescWDxPKk/

Jessica Jones said...

That is priceless. :)

Robbie Johnson said...

@cindyann I wondered the same about fabric and my son and I tried to recreate this collage with some felt from the craft store. It doesn't quite have the same geometric outcome because felt is so heavy and droopy, but I still think it looks great.

Lauren said...

This is really cool! Also, I linked to you in my links post today. :D

http://ohlauren.com/2012/08/25/weekend-links-2/

Satina Tabarquino Giraldo said...

What did you do to hang it on the wall?

Jessica Jones said...

I just used blue painter's tape on the back, since that's it's temporary location. If I wanted it there "for real," I'd probably glue one or two sawtooth picture hangers on the back and hang it on nails.

Jessica Jones said...

No, wait. I'd place a string across the back like a picture wire, tape it down on each end, and hang that on a nail.

arlo said...

Just catching up on blog reading and when I saw this post it reminded me of this wall art I saw on the walk to work the other morning:

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Street-art-posted-on-Asian-Museum-s-wall-3822947.php

Great idea.

Unknown said...

I have a question: Does the paper droop after hanging for a while or does it hold it's shape? Love the idea!

Jessica Jones said...

No drooping so far...

Anonymous said...

what a great art!.simply pretty

sanaz said...

OOoOoOoOoh i luv it:*

christine C said...

This has made a rainy day into a not so rainy day. My kids and I have created a number game with it. What a fun way to make something everyone can enjoy. next time we are using pictures of our family and were going to play the match up game. Parent to child, Sibling to Sibling. My kids love that I make the colors sparkle. I add glitter to almost everything.

Missjoycez said...

I took up the challenge to make a wall of white squars.I loved the idea of a 3D wall cover. I had an ugly wall en no budget. You were right, my wall has made nice with the sunlight now. It's made with A4 printer paper, doublesided tape(on the wall) en glue. I made rows glued to the remaining pieces left of the A4 paper to created strips (as I had to cut the paper to squares). I did it in a couple of different days, I could have done it in 2 whole days I think. I did about 4 strips with 18 squares at the time. Oh and use as much double sided tape as your wall is big, otherwise the strips will come down, it's heavier then wallpaper. I've added the picture on pinterest as that is the same place I found your site. Thanks for the inspiration. Joyce, The Netherlands

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/227994799859536864/

Jessica Jones said...

Wow, you did it! It's terrific! Thanks for sharing the link, Joyce!

Pauline said...

My yr3/4 art club loved making this wall art. We glued the squares to a heavy paper, hung them up on the display board where they stayed for the next few weeks.