DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Origami Petals (Flowers)

The petal is a very simple example of proper origami (just paper folding with no cutting or gluing), but I admit I've cheated a bit in putting the petals together into a flower.  This is, however, one of the simplest examples of an origami project you can make -- which makes it a perfect introduction to the artform for early grade school children!

If you have trouble with the instructions, try reading through the basic origami instructions section.

origmai-flower 

Materials:

Instructions:

  • Valley fold paper from edge to edge , making a rectangle.  Crease well and then unfold.
fold edge to edge 
  • Valley fold the triangle from the other edge to edge, crease and unfold.  You'll now have a square with a creased plus sign splitting it into 4 quarters.
fold edge to edge 
  • Valley fold paper from corner to corner , making a triangle.  Crease well and then unfold.
fold corner to corner 
  • and you end up with a square of paper with creases like this.
creased paepr 
  • Rotate your paper so one of the creased points is facing you.
  • Valley fold the left hand point to the center of the paper (where the creases cross).
  • Crease well!
fold point to center 
  • Valley fold the right hand point to the center of the paper (where the creases cross).
  • Crease well!
fold point to center 
  • Valley fold bottom left side point to touch the center crease
  • Crease well!
fold left side to center line 
  • Valley fold bottom right side point to touch the center crease
  • Crease well!
right side to crease
  • And you have a petal!  You can see that if you're using double sided paper, you get a cute pattern with the two colours.
completed petal 
  • Make 7 more petals.
  • Flip all of your petals over so that you're looking at the back of them
  • Use scotch tape to attach the petals together to make an 8 petal flower
tape flower 
  • Flip back to look at the front and admire your pretty flower!!
single color origami flower 
  • I like to use two different colors of origami paper and alternate the petals to make an even fancier flower.
origmai-flower