Tutorial Tuesday - Origami Flower Ball

You guys. I’m finally doing it. I’m posting my first home-grown tutorial. Bear with me as I muddle through all the steps (which there are MANY of). The pictures should all be blow-up-able if you click on them. So…let’s do this…

Supplies:

Paper (cut into squares) - I usually use pages from an old book along with some colored/patterned paper so that I can have a few accent-colored flowers. Five squares make one flower. I use squares anywhere between 4 and 6 inches - the bigger the square, the bigger the flower (obviously). Wouldn’t it be weird if it were the opposite? Like Bizarro World weird.

Glue - I just use Elmer’s. Easy peasy.

Bamboo skewers - I think you can get them at the grocery store in a pack of 50 for $2 (or around that).

Styrofoam ball - I usually use a 5 inch ball, but you can use whatever size you’d like.

Instructions:

OK. I’m going to start out by saying that the first set of directions is how to make a kusudama petal. It isn’t easy to capture this in pictures (in my opinion). If this is confusing at all (which I’m sure it will be), feel free to watch a video here. You won’t hurt my feelings. After you’ve made a petal, you can come back here and skip to the steps to make the flower and the actual ball.

Step 1: Start out with a square piece of paper.
Step 2: Fold the paper in half, corner to corner, making a triangle.
Step 3: Fold the right point of the triangle…
Step 4: Up to the top point of the triangle.

Step 5: Do the same with the left point of the triangle.
Step 6: Now you’ll have a square.
Step 7: Fold the top point down…
Step 8: So that it is flush with the bottom/right of the square.

Step 9: Repeat on the left side.
Step 10: It will now look like this.
Step 11: Open the flaps you’ve just created…
Step 12: And flatten so that it looks like this.

Step 13: Repeat on left side.
Step 14: Fold the top corner down so that it is flush with the edge.
Step 15: Repeat on the left side.
Step 16: Fold the flap in half on the crease.

Step 17: The paper will be flush with the edge.
Step 18: Repeat on left side.
Step 19: Squeeze a strip of glue down one of the flaps and press it to the other flap.
Step 20: Hold together for a few seconds. I usually put it on its side with something relatively heavy on top of the flaps to hold them together until the petal is completely dry (a few minutes). You want to be careful to only put pressure on the flaps where the glue is. If you flatten the entire thing, it’ll give your petal a big crease down the middle. Gack. Unless you like that look…

Step 21: This is what it should look like when it’s dry.
Step 22: Here’s a side shot.
Step 23: Get your bamboo skewer and squeeze a line of glue as long as your petal.
Step 24: Hold the inside of the petal so that the stick is centered. Again, hold on to it for a few seconds to make sure it’s at least got a little hold. After that, gingerly lay it on its side so that it’ll dry completely.

Step 25: Wait until the first petal is pretty dry (the glue dries clear, so I don’t try to put the next petal on until it’s almost completely clear) and repeat the process with the second petal.
Step 26: The back should look like this.
Step 27: Repeat until all 5 petals have been attached to the skewer.
Step 28: After it’s dried a bit (again, a few minutes), snap (or cut) the skewer so that it’s only 2 or 3 inches past the base of the flower.

Step 29: Insert the flowers into the styrofoam ball in whatever arrangement you like. When you’re trying to figure out the arrangement, you need to be careful not to make too many holes with the skewers before you get it where you want it. If the styrofoam is full of holes, the flowers will fall out (am I over simplifying?). If you make a mistake, you can reposition it, but try to avoid that as much as possible. Worst case scenario, though, is that you have to buy a new ball and start the flower arrangement part over. Not the end of the world. Nobody died (that’s how I try to look at mistakes). Once you’ve found the best spot, insert the skewer half way or so, take the skewer out, squeeze some glue into the hole and re-insert the skewer until the base of the flower is touching the styrofoam. That way it’s pretty secure. Honestly, this thing is pretty sturdy once the glue dries. I’ve had to rip flowers out to re-position them and practically broke (not really) my arm trying. Elmer’s glue is pretty awesome.

SO, there you have it! I know it looks daunting and, honestly, downright confusing. But once you get the blasted kusudama petal down, the rest is pretty easy. It’s VERY time-consuming, but not that difficult. And you’ll have something super pretty to show for all your hard work!!

I freaking LOVE this thing!!