Creative from Home: Origami Flowers

The beauty of flowers have brought encouragement, inspiration, and joy to many. Their reminders of new growth, life, and happiness have inspired artists all over the world, from Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, to the gardenias and dahlias that Frida Kahlo put in her hair.

As Spring is in full bloom and Summer draws near, we look forward to many bright days ahead. To celebrate, we are going to make flowers of our own using origami! Origami is the art of paper folding to create sculptures, typically without scissors or glue. Paper was invented in China around 105 CE and eventually imported to Japan where the art style of origami was only for special ceremonies because paper was a luxury item. Luckily, we all now have access to make origami of our own,

Let’s get started!

Things You Will Need

• Paper

• Colored Pencils

• Scissors

Step One

We are going to make tulip! To get started, get a piece of paper and decorate or color it how you want. We showed the colors of a rainbow on white paper for our example, but you can show your own creativity however you’d like! 

Step Two

Now, we need to cut our paper into a square. The size of your square will determine how big your flower will be. Our examples are each about 4” x 4.” Each square will make one flower, so create squares for as many flowers as you want!

Step Three

Take one of your squares and fold it in half so it makes a triangle. Then, fold your triangle down the center again.

Step Four

Open your triangle back up so that you see the crease from your fold running down the middle from the point at the top. 

Now we are going to add the petals to our flower. Take the bottom points of the triangle and fold them upwards. Follow the dotted red lines in the picture to know where to fold. 

Step Five

Now we have the head of your tulip, but it’s not complete without a stem! Get another piece of paper - this one should be bigger than the square you used to make your flower. Our example used a 6” x 6” square, colored green so it looks like a flower stem.

Step Six

Fold your square in half into a triangle, but open it up again so you can see the crease. 

Step Seven

Now take one corner and fold it inward so that the edge aligns with the crease in the center. Do the same with the other corner so that your paper makes the shape of a kite.

Step Eight

Next, take one corner and fold it inwards again, so that the point hits the center crease. Do this on both sides.

Step Nine

Take the side points again and fold them inwards to the center crease. Your stem will look like a long diamond shape when you are done.

Step Ten

Fold your diamond in half, bringing the top and bottom parts together. The thinner end of your diamond should be a slightly higher than the thicker part. The thin part will be the stem and the thicker part will be a leaf. 

Step Eleven

Lastly, fold your stem in half again. This time, instead of top to bottom, the two sides are going to meet. Make sure your thinner point is on the inside of the fold. Your stem should be able to stand on its own once you have done this fold.

Step Twelve

Now you just have to bring your flower and stem together! Cut off a tiny bit of the bottom of your flower so it fits on the stem. Put the flower on the stem and you're all set!

Step Thirteen

You now have your own tulip flower to put on your desk or give to someone you love. Don’t forget to share your creations with us on Instagram at @arckboston!