Origami elephant desktop wallpaper

I made myself a new desktop wallpaper from an elephant I folded awhile back. I don't know where the actual elephant is anymore, but his likeness is now on my monitor. Should you need an orange paper elephant for your desktop, download him here (1920x1080 px).

To fold your own elephant, follow the instructions at at Origami Spirit.

Easy origami egg holders

These easy origami egg cups are folded from 6" squares of origami paper. They took me just a minute or two each, and any decorative paper will work. You could whip up a bunch and put one at each place setting for Easter brunch. Coordinate the paper colors with a flower centerpiece and wrap the vase with a strip of matching paper. See how to make your own with this video tutorial by YouTube user 1petiteSorciere. Cute!

Little origami mouse

There's a mouse in the house! I made him by following this how-to video at Marigami Origami. The mouse was designed by Masashi Tanaka.

Easy woven origami bookmarks

I made these simple little woven bookmarks during my lunch break. Follow the directions at make-origami.com. I cut two 3/4" wide strips from a piece of 8 1/4" double-sided square origami paper and taped the short ends together to make a long, skinny strip. Then I followed the directions.


Easy and cute.

Mini origami Kleenex box

You'd love to spend 30 minutes of your life attempting to fold a mini tissue box for Kleenexes that dispense perfectly well from their original package, wouldn't you? I thought so. Follow along with this origami tissue box tutorial at Marigami Origami, designed by Paul Ee.

The 9.5" square of decorative paper I used makes a box that perfectly fits a Kleenex travel pack. For the record, I'm never doing this again.


Darned cute though, isn't it.

3D origami hearts

Yesterday's post got me in the mood for origami, so I tried out the instructions in Samuel Tsang's video on how to make 3D paper hearts. The lighting isn't great, but I figured out the steps, thanks to Samuel's pen. The folds aren't difficult; it's just hard to see them.


Each heart is folded from one square of paper. The openings in the sides make it easy to string them into a garland. Just think— by Valentine's Day, you could fold hundreds. Thousands. You could have a heart garland long enough to wrap around your house a few times.


If you need more Valentine ideas, try one of these other DIY projects.

Make a tiny origami Santa

I made wee origami Santas. Each guy is folded from two 1 1/2" squares of red paper. Have the kids tuck one inside your Christmas cards or stick them onto gift tags. Make them green and they could be elves.

Learn how to make these easy origami Santas right here at HoikuAkira. The instructions are in Japanese, but I just followed the photos. Google translate didn't add much value; the pictures were enough to get the job done.

(Oops! Looks like that link stopped working. This YouTube video looks similar.)

Origami diamond ornaments

I tried out Emma's directions for how to make an origami diamond from two squares of paper. Each half is folded separately and then the two pieces are glued together. The folding was easy but the gluing was a challenge! Getting all the peaks and valleys aligned at once took some fiddling, but the result is really cute.


After making these, I decided to hang them on our Christmas tree. I poked a hole in each end with a needle, then threaded a piece of wire through. I bent the bottom end of the wire into an acute angle so the gem won't slip off, then wrapped the top end of the wire over a pencil to form a hook.


If you already know you're going to make these into ornaments, you could make your life easier by adding string or wire to the top half before gluing the diamond together. Or leave the hanger off and put them in a bowl on the coffee table.

Find the tutorial here at Design and Form!

A book of paper snowflake and star instructions

Recently a review copy of Snowflakes, Sunbursts, and Stars: 75 Exquisite Paper Designs to Fold, Cut, and Curl showed up at my door. I love paper folding and cutting, and any medallion-type design with radiating modules, so this is right up my alley.

Christmas is coming so it's the perfect time to start folding paper decorations. Hang them on your tree, string them as garlands, or decorate packages with pretty paper toppers. Your friends and family will either be incredibly impressed or conclude you have way too much time on your hands.


The paper models are all origami, kirigami, and quilling projects with step-by-step directions and templates. A sampling of what you can make:








I tried out a star. Fun! You can get Snowflakes, Sunbursts, and Stars right here at Amazon.

Origami skeleton hand

I got a huge kick out of making this creepy origami skeleton hand! It's actually pretty easy, just lots of layers of paper to fold at once. Learn how in this video by Jo Nakashima; design by Jeremy Shafer. I will leave it on Alex's keyboard.

Origami jack-o-lantern

Heh. I made a pumpkin. Follow along with this origami tutorial by TCGames to learn how. It has turned into Halloween origami week at How About Orange.

Intermediate origami bat for Halloween

Here's another paper bat decoration, a little more difficult than in the previous post. This origami design is by Protogenius, demonstrated here on YouTube. My attempt at it has a big head, small wings, and something is funky with his feet! But he's a bat, all right. The cool thing is this model is a glorified paper airplane and (sort of) flies, plus it'll hang upside down from a string stretched across a doorway because the feet fold over and function like hooks.

This origami bat is made from a letter-sized sheet of paper. Follow along with the video tutorial, Part 1 and Part 2.

Easy origami bat for Halloween

Bats lend themselves to paper folding since their bodies can be easily reduced to flat planes. Here's a very simple version by Nick Robinson that you can fold in a minute or two. I followed this good video tutorial.

Picture this: you make a couple bats along with the video to memorize the steps. Then put on your favorite Halloweenish movie and fold an entire colony of bats. You could crank out dozens, hundreds! (Depending on how engrossed you get in the movie. Beetlejuice yields 65 bats. Batman Begins yields 2 bats.) Then tape strings of bats to fishing line or invisible thread and hang garlands from the ceiling. Or stick them to the wall in a huge group with a little ball of poster putty or loop of painter's tape at the bottom point of each bat.

Tips: If you end up with a little edge of white showing around the bat's head, color it black with a marker. Find packs of black origami paper for a few bucks at Amazon.

Fold an origami bulldog bookmark

I tried out this origami bulldog bookmark tutorial I found on YouTube. The doggie is designed by Christine Edison and demonstrated by Katrin. There's something very satisfying about taking a break from logos and brochures to fold a small square of paper into a thing!

I made the bulldog from a kraft paper envelope cut into a 5" square. The thicker stock was harder to fold, but I wanted the paper to be the same color on both sides. (If you use origami paper that has a white reverse side, you'll end up with a bit of white showing under the dog's nose.) The demonstration is easy to follow— happy folding!

Make an origami corgi

Ha, so cute! Steven Casey shows the steps to fold this origami corgi in his Flickr photostream (his photos, above). Not sure if we can see enough detail in the photos to follow along, but it will be fun to try. Start here with step one, then click the left arrow to navigate through. And don't even think about making your pup a different color. He needs to be orange for sure.

Origami tomato-shaped box instructions

Learn how to make these cute fruit-shaped origami boxes! Carlos Bocanegra designed them and Leyla Torres demonstrates how to fold them. Create a tomato or persimmon by following the video at Origami Spirit.

DIY folded paper bow tie

Justina Yang of Fiber Lab has invented a papercraft bow tie and made the template available as a PDF. I looooove it. See her post here to grab the folding diagram. If you try folding this yourself and end up with a crumpled paper ball, you can always order one from the Fiber Lab Etsy shop.

Photo by Justina's boyfriend.

Fold an origami elephant

I made this guy by following a video by Leyla Torres, my favorite origami demonstrator. Forget yoga— if you ever feel stressed out, just put on one of Leyla's videos, lie down on the couch, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and listen to Leyla speak gently about valley folds. Find her instructions for this origami elephant here. The design is by Fumiaki Kawahata.

Easy origami business card stand

In just a couple minutes you can fold an easy double-pyramid stand for business cards or phones. Check out the video tutorial from Leyla Torres right here.

Below is a still from Leyla's video. Wouldn't it be cool to fold a whole bunch of these, hot glue them to cardboard, and hang them on the wall? The trick would be to use gorgeous colors, so you might try this origami pack of 100 different hues. I used some on this thing.

Another origami fox

I tried folding another origami fox model. There was something about the tail I couldn't figure out between steps 22 and 23, but I like him anyhow. Find this Fox Baby diagram here, designed by Daniel Chang and diagrammed by Marc Sky.