It’s not long until Valentine’s Day and the cold sunny weather has put us in the mood for romantic walks and dancing in the moonlight...or is that just the effect of watching La La Land?! Either way, we’ve been looking for romantic craft ideas in our books and came across this beautiful origami rose, perfect to give to someone special or to decorate a Valentine's Day table, or simply to show a bit of self love this winter.
The Bara Rose is not the quickest of origami makes, but if you’re a beginner then simply take your time and work through the steps at your own pace. Mari Ono demonstrates how to make each fold so this origami flower will be a joy to make, leaving you with a beautiful origami rose and a feeling of calm contentedness.
How to make an Origami Rose in Bloom
I made a simple rose using three sheets of red paper, but you can pick and patterns you want, just trim them down to the required sizes. Out of all the various ways of making roses with origami I recommend this because it is very easy to make and looks beautiful in any color.
You will need:
3 sheets of 6in (15cm) origami paper
Cutting mat, craft knife and metal rule
Difficulty rating: ❋ ❋ ❋
Use the same method to make three boxes of different sizes, using 15cm, 11cm, and 5cm-square pieces of paper. To size the smaller sheets, take a piece of origami and measure 11cm or 4cm up one side and fold over one corner to reach the crease. Use a craft knife to cut around the folded corner.
Take the largest sheet and with colour-side up fold from corner to corner and open out. Repeat on the other corner so you have two diagonal creases. Fold the top and bottom edges by eye so that the paper is in thirds and make creases. Open out and fold in the sides. This time use the point where the diagonal crease crosses the horizontal as the fold mark.
Open out the paper and turn it over. Fold the top and bottom edges into the horizontal crease lines then turn the sides in to meet the vertical creases.
Fold over the corners of the last flaps made so that the top and bottom edges run down the sides of the object.
Lift each corner and unfold the inner creases, reversing the direction of the folds so that the corners fall outside the edges of the object as triangles. Next turn over the top right and bottom left corners across their diagonal creases.
Fold over each corner triangle so that the long edges run along the diagonal crease lines.
Lift up the paper and turn it over. Form the shape of a box by lifting the sides and pressing together the corners.
Carefully tuck the corner ends under the edge of paper, using the existing diagonal crease lines to hold them in place.
Repeat the entire process with the two smaller pieces of paper then place them inside each other to form the flower.
This project is taken from Origami for Mindfulness by Mari Ono.