May Projects for Origami and Paper Arts

Simple Buttonhole Flower

April showers bring may flowers, so why not make a few origami flowers to celebrate the coming of spring. There are many origami flowers you can make, but one of my favorites is the simple 4 petal buttonhole flower. Unlike the tulip made in April, this flower is 3 dimensional.

Children may find this model a little hard at first, but they will love it and demand to make more.

• make a Simple Buttonhole Flower

Origami Swan Parent and Child

I love this origami model: it’s so cute plus it is a perfect project for Mother’s Day. A mother swan and a baby swan made from one sheet of paper!

– make origami Swan Parent and Child

Origami Butterfly

With origami flowers in bloom, one would expect to find some origami butterflies too. There are quite a few origami butterflies that you can make, but my favorite easy butterfly is found in this book by Michael LaFosse. This simple butterfly uses 2 sheets of paper and makes a darling butterfly in 5 steps.

If you can’t get a copy of this book, you can try some of these other models. They are a little bit more challenging, so try them yourself to see which works best for your students.

• Flapping Butterfly by d farrelly. A cute model which you can squeeze between your finger. the squeezing causes the wings to flap. 9 steps. [see video of flapping]
• Stand Up Butterfly by A Anselmo. This model uses a dollar bill, but a rectangle will work. 7 steps. [middle photo]
• Traditional Butterfly: this one requires more steps to fold and the paper gets thick, but the results ave very satisfying. 14 steps. [bottom photo]
• Yoshizawa Butterfly: much beloved butterfly created by Grand Master Akira Yoshizawa. Looks great and is intermediate in difficulty. 9 steps.