Pleating is not origami, but another great way to manipulate paper into strong three dimensional objects, and this year's Easter DIY project, is fun to try, if you have never tried pleating before.
There is only one horizontal pleating line in this design - and I have made it super easy for you, because all the necessary lines are clearly marked on the design.
I made six different designs for these Easter egg like little lanterns, and I have made some variations to them, by pleating along different lines, and turning them some of them - so some are egg like, others more hot air balloon like, if you see what I mean.
I also made you a little tutorial, with some photos showing the process and a few bits of advice. Pleating is hard to explain, it has to be tried and experienced - and then it becomes easy!
Download my How-to-Pleat-Easter-Eggs tutorial:Page 1 / Page 2
I went a bit color crazy - I long for spring and warmth and sun - and these are a bit more circus and carnival than traditional Easter decorations, but perhaps you feel the same?
Have a colorful Easter, and happy folding and pleating!
These little diamond shaped lanterns will be my first Christmas gift for all the faithful paper DIY enthusiasts, who will be expecting at least a little project for the weekends, in the weeks to come.
They are easy and fun to make, and I have named them after a friend of my son, who will sometimes get up very early in the morning, pick up a phone from his still sleeping parents, and find origami instruction videos on YouTube, and while away some quiet morning hours, folding and folding. Just my kind of kid! So thank you, Finn - I had never seen these before, and they look great.
I made them into hanging ornaments, but they could be little gift boxes as well. And they could be hanging both ways - I just like the Chinese vibe they get in this version, with a little tassel. The string and tassel you could pull through with a needle, before you actually glue and close the form, that's a bit easier. I tied the little knots, after I had put the string in place. But check out the instructions.
Get the PDF with the four different prints, and the folding instructions, right here.
2021: I have a new location for my downloads, go here for the four variants with tutorial (in Danish, but with easy-to-follow drawings) Design 1 / Design 2 / Design 3 / Design 4
These fragile lanterns I made the other day turned out quite pretty, so I'll share them here, and maybe inspire you to make some for your own Autumnal party, Halloween get-together or such.
They are not long lived, but quickly and easily made.
It started with a walk in our next door little park, which is in itself interesting as leaves go, because it is a university botanical garden, so rare, unusual and colorful leaves are abundant! But any leaves will do, and most leaves are beautiful, somehow.
Rather blurry photos, I know, but they were taken in near darkness.
But they were so pretty, and the shadows and silhouettes were most poetic.You need to decide to make them for a party, or something like that, because they will loose color and stability rather fast! So enjoy them while they last...
I made the lanterns the day after I gathered the leaves, while they still had some life in them (= not too dry), so I used actual tea lights in small glass jars, but already next day they were so dry and withered, that I didn't want to light the candles again. But I have some LED tea lights from IKEA that are actually quite nice, and they went in instead. They still look nice, all dried up!
Here is what I did:
I gathered a lot of different sizes and shapes of leaves that were still fresh with some color and sap - and flattened them a bit between the pages of a newspaper with a stack of books on top.
Next day I made the lanterns like this: organized the leaves a bit according to size, and lined them up nicely, overlapping a bit like this:
I dotted a bit of hot glue, not too tidily, between the leaves (lifting them one by one) and pressed the row flat with my hand, and let it dry for a short while....
Then I cut a neat, sharp line with my steel ruler and knife, and to close the loop in the back, I simply used my office stapler.
PLEASE be careful with the real tea lights - these things can become a bit of a fire hazard, but not so if the leaves are freshly gathered, and have just fallen off the trees. Otherwise use battery powered mini LED lights!
//
While you enjoy the flickering light and the dancing shadows on the wall, I suggest you listen to this lovely, lovely song, performed by the unforgettable Eva Cassidy.
I find origami a little bit addictive. I can forget about it for months and then I sort of fall off the wagon again. And then I sometimes can't stop. It's not that I ever do very complicated origami, I dont have patience for that. I usually like to do one type at a time, and then I just can't seem to stop....! As you know, I like making my own paper designs. Not that I don't love traditional origami paper, but sometimes the colors overwhelm me. So I make sheets of more tone-in-tone patterns, many of which you can see here on the Pinterest board of my paper projects - with links to follow, of course.
Here is a little thing I made, which I decided I liked best in my own black/white graphic patterns.
The cheap LED string lights you can buy
everywhere this time of year are great for paper projects, because the
bulbs don't get hot. So I dressed up this one, in one of my favorite
little origami-designs: small perfect square cubes, or as they are sometimes called; origami balloons.
They are so well suited for the purpose, because they have a natural opening, that the little LED bulb easily slides into. A super smart thing is to wrap a small rubber band around the bulb before inserting it, this will keep the paper cube quite firmly in place. I used some of those mini rubber bands kids make bracelets from: loom bands. They worked perfectly.
I like my version in the black/white patterns. And I also made them from smaller squares than the most common size origami paper, because I wanted the cubes quite small. And If you want to give it a go, I made these squares into a PDF. Just print a bundle, cut them and get going. Use thin, cheap paper (80 gr. is nice for origami) and a ruler and a sharp knife when you make your paper squares.
They are lovely to make, almost meditative. It took me about two hours to make the fifty ones I used for this string of cosy November lights.
A sort of relaxed prequel to actual Christmas decorations, I think!
Download the 12 x 12 cm. black/white origami squares right here.
I promise you that these are not scary at all, and neither do they contain sticky seeds. I actually made them, because I purchased these really nice LED tealights in IKEA. Usually LED tealights are really low quality with some kind of weak yellowish light, but these are really cool. They look nice, and actually have very much the warm glow and flicker of a real candle. So I have been playing around with them, because I love paper lanterns of all kinds, and it's great not to have to worry about fire hazard.
So go buy some LED tealights, and download the PDF to make these supereasy pumpkins right HERE. And have a spooky or non-spooky Halloween, whichever you prefer!
This is so simple, it hardly qualifies as an idea, but I'll let you have it anyway!
I love iittala Kivi lanterns, and I have amassed quite a collection of them over the years.Their heavy chunkyness appeal to me.They make any tablesetting or such look pretty, epecially if you have a bit of mixed colors. I sometimes use some for vases and some for candles, that looks good. I also sometimes decorate them, for instance I have painted little Tipp-Ex dots on them, and sometimes I make covers for them. Not that they actually need it, but I just like playing around.
Plus I like any idea where you just need a bit of ordinary white paper.
(Of course you could use the 'birds feet' slit pattern for larger lanterns, from jam jars, or whatever.)
These are little strips for your Kivis, wintery and white. Just print this design, cut and stick them on.
