Christmas is coming, yay! So much seasonal origami is coming. I have so much planned: the twelve days of Christmas in origami, the manger scene en papier and an origami-themed advent calendar!

Hello, here are some recent things I've been folding: a cute 3-D elephant, a sea star from a new book, and a cool star box.

Sea star is from The complete book of origami by Robert Lang, and the star box is from GoOrigami.
Hope you're having a wonderful day!

So... I'm not the biggest fan of tessellations  or modular origami, for that matter. I like the image/nature-orientated origami and am not as much into the geometric parts/repetition side. However recently I decided to give it a try with a design I really like. Hydrangea by Shuzo Fujimoto  is fairly simple for 3 layers and after several practice rounds I decided to add multiple layers. Here's my model progression.

-four layers out of a square made from letter paper, hence the binder hole

-5 layers!

Well,  I was all ready to devote my time to some Thanksgiving decor when I hit a wall. There are very few origami designs out there for Turkey day. Yes, a few turkeys, but nothing too advanced or elegant. So I decided to make a bunch of other fall creatures to join my lone turkey.

turkey. instructions: 'thanksgiving turkey' on Origami Resource Center.



frog on a lily-pad. instructions: by Collin Weber.



fox. instructions: YouTube.


squirrel (and apple). forgot to take pics of this one before i gave it to my friend to fuel her squirrel obsession. instructions: YouTube

I really like how the frog on a lily pad design turned out. Using double sided paper definitely helps complete the look. Otherwise half the pad is white and half is the frog's color. A lot of the themed origami designs come from happypuppytruffles on YouTube.  Check out her designs here. Most of them are great for beginners/intermediates.

As always there's no better time for folding origami than the holidays, the first of which is Halloween! Origami spiders, bats and jack-o-lanterns make the perfect spooky decor. For my Halloween collection this year I even added a bit of kirigami (paper cutting) with some easy spider webs!
Enjoy!

skeleton hand. instructions on YouTube.



bat. instructions: Mantler's Bat.



jack-o-lantern. instructions on YouTube.




spider. instructions on origami-instructions.com.



spider web. instructions: YouTube.

All in all I'm fairly pleased with this spooky Halloween group. The skeleton hand is an elegant design as it looks complex but in reality is quite simple. The spider involves some cutting, which means it's not true origami, but even I bend my rules for seasonal decor. This was my first time doing the jack-o-lantern which I really like and made me wish I had letter size orange paper. oh well, live and learn...

I've got some brand new 'buds! Well, earbuds that is... my old Apple freebies have been worn to pieces by my overuse and torn to pieces thanks to my puppy dog, Rosie. When I saw this tutorial on Crochet Clouds I thought I most certainly could give it a go. I have plenty of embroidery floss hanging around -- in my favorite colors too!


So here's my take on Gina's tutorial you can find here.


What do you think? I didn’t change much up from the original, but I would say you probably don't need four full skeins of embroidery floss. I barely used two skeins of 2.75 meters each. I really like the finished product, which hopefully won't tangle as badly as the original. Practical and pretty, what a deal :)

Summer is over, fall is upon us and school has started up again. All the turnovers and new beginnings have given me an opportunity to renew this blog. New look, new purpose.



This blog will be home to all my origami shenanigans and the occasional DIY project. I've got some big plans for the future including flower week/month, the Twelve days of Christmas and a Nativity scene of folded paper alone! Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, I'll be able to get a successful origami jewelry store going on Etsy.

So here's to a great fall season and a productive school year!