in honor of the tiny house movement

Ah, what else is there to do on a snowy, oh-so-cold morning, besides making tiny adorable origami houses? Also, I recommend eating this while making the petite community.

This is a fairly easy origami task, requiring two sheets of square paper--one to make the roof, another to make the bottom. I found this recipe on my most favorite origami website. Try it yourself: Tiny House Recipe on Origami Club.

A snowy village!

The village relocates to the kitty's lair.

The kitty examines the new village...

And decides it is unacceptable. 

:( :( :( 

Shall test out other recipes for architecture in the near future. 

Happy Sunday, wherever you are! ^_^

Origami Ball Recipe!

Yay! Isn't it wonderful that it is finally spring? :) It's this time of year that I do so love to make cheery decorations around the house. I made this strand of origami balls sometime ago, but I thought I'd share the recipe today. As far as origami goes, the origami ball is fairly easy and a good deal of fun to make (though, it does take some practice!). I've used them for Christmas ornaments, too, which can be accomplished with a bent paper clip inserted in to the hole (as shown in the end of this post).

First things first, turn your origami piece color side down.

Fold over diagonally and in half, both ways.

...so that you have your square folded into eighths, and open it up, like so.

This part is rather tricky. You will need to flip it over and using both hands, tuck in the corners of the paper, so that it makes a triangle when pushed together.

The inside should look like this.

Now, place your triangle flat and fold up one side...

...like so. It should look like two triangles on one side. You'll need to do the same on the other side of the triangle as well.

Just like this! Now, both flaps on this side have been folded up to make a square at the top of the triangle.

Flip your triangle over and do the exact same thing on the other side.

The inside of the paper should like this, and you should have this open side facing you, like so.

Time to make some pockets! Take a corner and fold into the center line.

Do this on all four sides of the origami ball, so it looks like this.

This part might be the trickiest. At the bottom of your paper, there will be four flaps of paper. You will need to tuck these into the "pockets" you made on the previous step.

Make sure you get each flap tucked in!

On this side, both have been tucked in. Turn the piece over and repeat on the other side.

Hold your origami ball upright. Do you see a tiny hole in the top of the ball? Hold the ball between two fingers (you might need to use both hands) and blow into the hole. This is also rather tricky at first. You have to blow pretty hard.

Tada!!!! It's a ball! Well, a rather square ball, but a ball all the same!

If you want to make ornaments, use a paper clip.

You can do quite a bit with origami balls. I've placed a bunch of them in a bowl on a table, hung them up with string, and even placed them in cards for kids once with instructions on how to make them pop! 

Happy weekend! ^_^ Let me know if you have any questions about how to make these. There are a lot of other tutorials online about how to make these, too.

Origami Cupcakes Recipe!

Last night when I was watching an excellent (and highly recommended) Korean drama (City Hunter), I decided to multi-task and design an origami cupcake. Ever since my friends and I became obsessed with cupcakes in our senior year of college, I've been an adamant supporter of the cupcake renaissance! I must share, therefore, a picture of the giant snow cupcake (award-winning!) I made with my roommates for snow-sculpture contest a few years ago:

But back to my origami cupcake recipe. They're definitely not perfect, but still, super cute! I think I shall teach them in my origami class for kids next month at my library.

All you need is a square of paper (origami paper works best, though...you can purchase a pack at a craft store for $6-10). Some markers or colored pencils could be useful too if you want to decorate the frosting more.

Okay! Pick out a cheery pattern for your wrapper: 

Now, flip it over so your icing side is showing, and fold your bottom corner up a little bit, like shown: 

Next, fold the two side-wings of your paper, so that their ends are perpendicular to the base of the paper. [It's alright if they aren't perfectly even--mine isn't!]

Fold up the base of your cupcake so that a straight line is made for your cupcake wrapper. 

Next step is kinda tricky if you haven't done origami before. Flip your cupcake to the other side and fold the sides of your cupcake from the front to the back at a slight angle, like so: 

With your cupcake still face-down, make slight folds to the corners of the cupcake frosting. This will make your cupcake frosting round, not pointy! 

Yay! Almost done! Flip your cupcake to the front. Fold a small triangle from the back to the front, like so. Alternately, if you don't want a cherry/chocolate chip top, you can fold backward, so the top of your cupcake is flat. 

Flip your cupcake around again, so the front is facing down, and make small folds at the top to round off the top of your cupcake. 

Flip it around one more time, and your cupcake, if done correctly, should look something like this: 

Last step: decorate your cupcake! I added sprinkles to this one. 

I might just have to go make real cupcakes now! 

If you have any suggestions or questions about this origami cupcake recipe, please comment below.