I Heart Origami Hearts

I don't know about you, but I am totally crap at origami. It is with horror that I remember a one-day Japanese language course where the kind tutor also showed us the traditional origami crane that all school children in Japan can make with their eyes closed. Well, I couldn't even do it with my eyes open!!!

While out on Sunday, a friend of a friend entertained the kids at the restaurant by folding the crane from a piece of scrap paper that was left on our table. I was mightily impressed - and wished that I had a little party piece like that to awe my little audience with. Also, my ambition was piqued, and I looked up origami crane instructions on the net. "If she can do it, so can I!" the Queen of Crafts thought, "thou shallt not be craftier than us!" Well, my attempts at recreating the crane were pathetic - and landed in the waste paper basket!!! But not being one to give up easily, I found another origami piece which I was able to do - yoohoo. Origami hearts!

Do you want to make one, too? I have developed an origami heart fetish and made about 20 yesterday. It's dead easy. Usually origami pieces are made from square paper. This project is so neat because you use a rectangular piece of paper - A4 size is just right. (Or A5, A6, whatever size you want your heart to be!) So no cutting or trimming needed! The other cool thing is that you only need paper that is decorated on one side. The pattern works in such a way that only the decorated side will be visible on the finished heart. That means you can even use scrap paper - recycle it here!


I usually take photos for my tutorials, but with origami I find pictorial instructions useless. I never understand the little arrows and instructions. So I stole borrowed my son's little digital camera to record my first ever clip tutorial. Tadaaaaaaaaaa! Craft-Werk goes 21st century! I proudly present my first attempt at a video tutorial. (Disclaimer: Sorry about the picture quality  - must be the poor pixel settings of the camera - and the typing sounds in the background. I hope it is not too distracting!)

Ugh, was that me? Do you also hate hearing your voice? Anyway, I hope you could see how easy and quick it is to make this little paper heart. I decided to make them into ornaments to hang from a few branches. You are asking me why go through all the fuss of folding when you could simply cut out a heart shape and hang it up like that. Point taken - but these origami hearts are nicely three-dimensional. And it's good to learn something new, isn't it?

My mantlepiece in the drawing room was in need of some colour and happiness. I had some coloured paper in my stash which I used. I also experimented with colourful pages ripped from a magazine (didn't like those so much, though). But the best results were with scrap paper that I had printed chiyogami patterns on. I have recommended the site before - Canon has a whole webpage dedicated to crafting. You can download beautiful paper designs there - for free - and print them on your normal paper. Check it out - Canon Creative Park. 


No two of my origami hearts are the same. They would look nice just on their own, but I decided to embellish them with bits and pieces that I had lying around - bells, buttons, ribbon, beads, even a little shell. My favourite, though, is what I have dubbed the "You hold the key to my heart"-heart.

I am not a fan of the whole Valentine's Day season, but these ornaments would make a lovely display. You could string them up on a bit of ribbon and hang them on the mantle. They also make an original Valentine's message - remember: only one side of the paper is visible on the finished heart, so you can write a message to your Valentine on the inside and then fold it up. Nifty!!!

Best,




PS: Am linking this to

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21 January: Have just linked this to

22 January: Also linked to

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