Origami animals

Since the kids had Japan as their topic in school, origami was obviously on the menu. You all know what an arts and crafts nerd I am so I wanted to practice before showing my class how to do the folding. Needless to say, I got addicted to this seemingly simple art form, which I found is very relaxing. I thought I’d share some of my favorite things to make in a few of my posts, starting with some animals. Here they are, from the easiest to most challenging. If my P7s could do it, anyone can. Trust me.

All you will need is some square paper. Origami paper works best since it is thin and often two different colors, but otherwise just use normal plain paper cut into a square. The bigger the paper the easier it is to fold. The folds are very important- take time over creasing sharply as this will make a big difference to the finished piece.

This first one is as easy as pie to make, and its cute. Introducing- the owl.

Not much harder to fold is this angel fish. You could even make a whole shoal of fishies in different colors and sizes…

I love making origami dogs. I adapted this slightly with my class and we just made dog faces, but I prefer this pup.

This elephant is adorable, and worth making even if its a bit trickier. You will need a pair of scissors to finish the legs.

A squeaky little mouse. This one is more challenging, it took me a few attempts.

Ah, the crane. Probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of origami, but definetly not to be attempted till you’ve had some practice, as I discovered. It took me tons of attempts to make a perfect crane, including watching countless Youtube tutorials. But I managed in the end.

I used an excellent origami book to help me out, which also provided the beautiful paper. I drew on the eyes, noses etc. with a black pen. You can be creative and start a whole farm/ zoo/ woodland with creatures in all colors and sizes. My shelves are full of them…

Hope you enjoyed an insight into origami and look out for more soon!

All pictures my own and taken on the iPhone 8 🙂