Ah summer! When anything goes. Crafts, staying up late, sleepovers when I suggest that we all watch Jumanji and the kids are in my face all night because they think they hear drums—what the hell was I thinking? All good stuff. The best stuff though is when you can take a simple piece of paper and with a few folds turn it into a flower and watch a wonderful smile bloom on your child’s face.
After making these with my 9 year old, I would first suggest learning to make a couple on your own and then teaching your children to make them with white printer paper cut into a square, before moving on to origami paper. Once they move through the steps, they’ll get the feel for this art. Make sure they press down the folds and take theor time. This craft is a good lesson in patience.
TIP: If you cannot make a trip to the store origami paper, to buy simply use white printer paper and make moonflowers. If you do not have yellow paper have your child color a small piece of paper yellow and stick it in the middle of your flower.
Here is what you will need:
- White or blue paper ( origami paper is the best)
- Yellow and green paper
- 18 gauge floral stem wire (in the floral section of the craft store)
- White glue or hot glue
- Scissors
Steps 1-4: 1-With the blue side facing in fold paper in half to make a triangle. 2-Fold paper in half again making a smaller triangle. 3- Fold paper in half again. 4-Unfold paper and turn the paper over folding it in half again the opposite way it was folded in the first step, again making a triangle.
Steps 5-8: 5-Unfold the paper and flip it over. Turn the paper one quarter so the point that was facing you is now facing to your left or right (east or west) Now comes the only semi tricky part: Hold the corner to your right and fold it to match the top corner. 6-Now press the crease in the middle with your left hand. The bottom corner should now be on top of the top corner. Move your left hand off and hold the right side down while taking the left corner over to match the top corner. 7-You should now have a diamond shape. 8- Fold the right corner to the crease and repeat with the remaining corners. You should now have something the looks like a kite.
Steps 9-11: 9- Cut the top of your kit shape to round it out (see photo). 10- Holding the bottom of the flower with one hand put your index finger inside the middle the flower. with your index finger on the crease press down the petal turning it inside out. Now do the same with the other side. 11- Now open up the flower by folding down each half circle shape. Take a small piece of paper 1″-3″ and roll it up. Stick it in the middle of the flower.
For the stems and leaves:
Steps 1-3: 1- Take a piece of wire and a small piece of yellow paper, roll it around the end of the wire and glue in place. Now push the wire through the bottom of the flower. Twist the stem around a pencil. 2- Cut heart shaped leave from green paper. Origami paper is usually one-sided so I used plain green card stock. You can either glue the leaves right to the flowers wire stem or glue thing floral wire to the middle of the leaves and pinch with your finger to hold in place. I found hot glue worked the best. Twist the leaf stems around the flower stems.
Have fun with the finished craft as the curly stems hook together and are beautiful as a mobile or hanging from a light fixture. These would make a fantastic garland for any summer party.
Summer activity questions? Just Ask Holly in comments.