A couple of years ago, I had attempted these heart boxes by Robin Glynn for the first time. While I had not perfected it, it still turned out great. So this time, with Valentine's Day coming up, I decided to give it a go again.

This time, I wanted to make it sturdier, so attempted it with thicker paper. That is, with 120 gsm from some of the paper packs that I had with me. So, in addition to being really pretty, these boxes also turned out to be functional.

The pink and white boxes are my absolute favourites. Naturally, these boxes have been duly handed over to Little Miss! She apparently is once again in need of boxes for her things!

The blue box, termed "Love is in the air", was specially requested by a friend.

And with that, we come to the end of the post :)

Prisms in Mathematics are polyhedrons where the top and bottom faces are polygons that are identical. The sides are parallelograms.

I was trying out the prisms from  Miyuki Kawamura's book 'Polyhedron Origami' for beginners. And it turned out to be really simple. Each of the prisms can be done in 10-15 mins in all.

Well, there really isn't much more to say! Give it a go :)

Model Details:

Model: Prisms

Book: Polyhedron Origami

Author: Miyuki Kawamura

Difficulty Level: Simple

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4 inches

Model Size: 2 inches in height

Tutorial: Triangular Prism, Square Prism, Hexagonal Prism

I don't usually fold animals or birds, but this little sparrow was a delight to fold. I also liked the look of it. It doesn't look like a real sparrow, more like the cartoon version, with a nice long tail and a pair of jaunty wings.

The sparrow fairly easy to fold, though I did get stuck in the third step initially. For those trying out for the first time, please remember that in the second step, the rabbit ears has to be completed on the front and then repeated behind. Only then does step 3 work out right. Steps 6 and 7 are slightly tricky. The rest is pretty easy.

The creator, Perry Bailey, suggests using single coloured paper, so that the head and the body are the same colour, but I think duo coloured paper provide a better appearance, such as my little sparrow here.

Model Details:

Model: Sparrow

Creator: Perry Bailey

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 4.5 inches

Model Size: 2 inches in height and 3.5 inches across

Diagram: Origami Diagram

As a kid, I was an avid Enid Blyton fan. And as such, was quite familiar with mushrooms and gnomes and fairies and elves. So when I came across this origami mushroom, designed by Matt Slayton, well naturally, I had to fold it!

I had initially tried it with orange momigami paper. It came out well, but I think the wrapping paper in red with white dots makes a better mushroom. 3-4 inch squares result in an ideal size for these mushrooms.

Model Details:

Model: Mushroom

Creator: Matt Slayton

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 - 4 inches

Model Size: 3 - 4 inches in height and 2 - 2.5 inches across

Diagram: Origami Diagram

This gift box, designed by Robin Glynn, is yet another of his economical designs. The entire box, including the closure at the top, is made from a single square of paper.

A 6-inch square gives a small box (about 2 inches in size, 1 inch in depth) that would be a good size for a ring, or a pair of small earrings. A bigger square, say 8 inches, results in a slightly bigger box, about 3 inches in size and about 1.5 inches in depth.

The paper I first used was the usual origami paper. Not good for the box. The sides are not strong, since it isn't a modular box, so it cannot serve any purpose. I then tried with scrapbooking paper, 160 gsm heavy paper. This was perfect. The open box was from a 6-inch 160 gsm paper, with a woodsy appearance. My favourite though, is the black and white box, made from an 8-inch 160 gsm paper.

Model Details:

Model: Gift Box 

Creator: Robin Glynn

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 6 - 8 inches

Model Size: 6 inch square results in a box of side 2 inches and depth 1 inch
8 inch square results in a box of side 3 inches and depth 1.5 inches

Tutorial: Youtube

Diagram: Origami Diagram

Happy New Year, dear readers! I hope this new year is a blessing to all of you.

So I wanted to start off the new year on the blog, with a beautiful project. I was working on a complex origami, which wasn't turning out to be much of a success! So I ended up putting it aside, incomplete for now, and instead started working on an easier (but more time consuming!) project, namely a paper rose wreath.

This rose wreath is made entirely from paper (the pages of an old book, to be precise). I have been working on this wreath for the past week, a few hours each week. And though it was a back-breaking and time-consuming work, I am delighted with the end result! And now it hangs proudly in my work room and I keep admiring it every few mins!! I know, vanity indeed!!

The purpose of the rose wreath was two-fold. One, I wanted a project for New Year and two, I wanted to try out a recent purchase of mine - the EK Success Circle Scissors. It arrived a few days back and ever since, I have wanted to do something with circles. And these roses start off as circles, so it was a perfect way to start using my scissors. And I must say, I am absolutely fascinated with the scissors! I needed to cut about 250 circles (that is how many roses there are in the wreath) and with the circle scissors, this was a piece of cake - all done in less than an hour :)

Of course, making the roses was the major work. It took me about 8-10 hours to complete. The base can be a foam wreath base. But I had made my own wreath - cardboard cut in shape, lined with bunched up newspaper then layered with tissues that are held down with a mix of glue and water. Allow to dry over night and you have a rock solid wreath base. Glue on roses, add a ribbon - red for a little colour. And voila, your wreath is ready!

I am now thinking of making a Valentine day's wreath, using red roses. What do you think, dear readers?

Model Details:

Model: Paper Rosette Wreath 

Origin: Traditional

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Circle

Paper Size: 3 inches in diameter

Model Size: Wreath diameter - 12 inches

No of Units: ~ 250 

Tutorial: Youtube

Yet another design by Martin Sejer Andersen that I recently folded :) This was initially named 'The Unnamed Ring'! and has recently been christened the Braided Ring.

The ring is made from 14 modules. The modules start off with folding into fifths. So a template comes in handy. I quite like the little bits of colour (white in my case) that can be seen at the edges and at the centre of the ring. Btw, the ring is a 3D ring, but can easily be converted into a flat 2D version. But I did find the 3D version more stable than the 2D one!

Model Details:

Model: Braided Ring 

Creator: Martin Sejer Andersen

Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3 inches

Model Size: ~ 4 inch diameter

Tutorial: Youtube

Modules: 14