Origami Cherry Blossoms

This year Easter and hanami (Japanese for the season of blossoming cherry trees) coincide. So my paper-diy-project Easter egg gift for you, is a very pretty origami cherry blossom. These are quite large, and would look great as table decorations.

There are countless ways of folding a sakura with five petals, but I did a little research, and I think this one is both pretty, easy to make - and it has all the right characteristics of the cherry blossom, like the star shape and that lovely little dent each petal has. Find the tutorial and my special paper, after the images.

These are modular origami, you need to fold each petal individually, and then assemble them. Once you get the hang of it, you may experiment with the dent (the extra fold in the petal, that gives it shape), you can fold that in many ways - and you could also make flowers with much more than five petals, using the same principle.

You'll need glue for these, otherwise they are all over the place!

See tutorial page 1  /  page 2

I made two slightly different designs, and two sizes : about 12 cm. and 8 cm. - or you could scale the design and make miniature versions of them, they are not complicated to fold. Download and print the special paper, that has two flowers of each size and design, right here: Get the PDF

2021: I have a new location for my downloads, please go here:
Large A  /  Large B  /  Small A + B

Happy folding, happy Easter, happy Hanami or perhaps just spring!

Cherry Blossom Viewing in Copenhagen

It has been an unusually warm and sunny week in Copenhagen, and everybody seems to have been struck by mild spring craziness. Cherry Blossom Viewing was the thing this whole past week, and much like in Japan, the most perfect cherry trees made the TV evening news. Hereabouts, the cherry blossom alley in Bispebjerg Kirkegård  (the park and cemetery near the impressive Grundtvigs Church), was the most popular site for an improvised hanami.

I took these pictures a few days ago, and today we will be checking out the Copenhagen Sakura Festival at Langelinie, even though the weather looks a bit dodgy. They have a lot of activities the whole weekend, and it is a really fun place to visit, I did last year!

Instagram and facebook were bursting with pink flowers as well, most popular hashtags were apparently #sakuraweekcph and #bispebjergkirkegaard - I checked out the first tag a couple of days ago, and this is what it looked like....

Pink, pink, pink. One of my favorite colors. And spring is indeed here.

Copenhagen Sakura Festival

We went to an absolutely charming event today; the annual, local 'Hanami' or 'cherry-blossom-viewing-picnic' at the waterfront park Langelinie. You really must go tomorrow, if you missed it today, read all about it right here in the festival program.

It has been the perfect day for a Hanami, I must say - the weather was unbelievable for an April day: just like a perfect, breezy summer day. And every local Japanese (and Japanese wannabe) must have been there, and so was every manga- anime- and cosplay-nut in their craziest outfits. It was great. We had matcha tea milkshakes and chilled to Japanese folk songs and live Kendo fighting and just general spring delirium.

Cherry Blossom Flowerballs

One of the most stunning signs of spring in these parts of the world, are fruit trees in bloom. Well, not only in these parts, I guess, but on these latitudes, because just think of the sakura ('Hanami') celebrations in Japan, on the opposite side of the planet! In our garden we have two large old cherry trees, with snow white blossoms, and we have an apple tree with the most spectacular girly pink and red ones. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to have an easter, where they are in bloom and where the weather is nice enough for you to actually eat outside and not freeze your butt off. Lets see how it works out this year. Both easter and blossoms are very close!

These super easy paper flower balls, are a celebration of all these trees going crazy at the moment, be it here or there. They consist of twelve flower shapes that you assemble in about a minute, via the marked slits. Very, very easy. Make as many as you like, and have your own hanami party this weekend, if you don't happen to have a pink flower show + sunshine outside, where you live!

Get the PDF's right here - they come in three slightly different shades and designs:  

 

2021: I have a new location for my downloads, please go here:

Design 1: front and back  /  Design 2: front and back  /  Design 3: front and back