Origami Cherry Blossom: Tutorial & Inspiration

A few weeks ago, the creative leisure magazine Marie Claire Idées invited me to offer you a little tutorial, simple and quick, to make as a family. So I wanted to prepare an inspirational article for you around folding the origami cherry blossom.

Confinement has offered, for several weeks, moments of break from the rhythm of our busy lives! These unprecedented moments of respite could have been an opportunity to decide to give more space in one's life to creating for oneself and trying new creative practices, including after the end of confinement!

If you've been following us for a while now, we'll know that the origami cherry blossom is one of our favorite folds! Indeed, it is very easy to make and can be available in various sizes, cuts, colors and patterns according to your tastes and desires!
Furthermore, you can use your cherry blossoms to mount them on a garland, on a mobile or even a suspension but also to create a wall decoration by sprinkling them on a wall, putting it under a frame to create a pretty floral composition or also to enhance a gift package, or make a spring bouquet.

In short, this folding offers a multitude of creative possibilities!

To make origami cherry blossoms, you will need:

• squares of 6cm by 6cm of paper ( 1 square of paper corresponds to 1 cherry blossom ) > The standard size used for this folding is 6cm by 6cm but you are free to use larger squares if you wish . For the paper, you can either use Japanese paper in various colors and patterns or plain Japanese paper in the colors of your choice. You can also create flat areas of color using gouache (or possibly acrylic paint ). Here again, there are no rules, give free rein to your imagination and your desires!
• white vinyl glue otherwise a classic glue stick,
• a small pair of scissors , preferably, for cutting the fold,
• small punches to make flowery hearts (or pistils ),
• small colored wooden beads to decorate the center of the flowers.

For this tutorial, I used Japanese paper (plain or patterned) which is perfect for origami! It is a beautiful paper, flexible, easy to work with and which retains good strength once folded. For the colorful range that I am offering you today, I chose an assortment of origami papers with traditional patterns and colors to match the summer colors of my palette.

To enhance my folding, I made hearts for my cherry blossoms using flower-shaped punches. It is also possible to add a small brad, a pearl, a sequin...

Now it’s time to make our origami cherry blossoms!

1. Take your square of paper, white side facing you. Mark the horizontal median as shown in the photo with the dotted lines.
2. Mark the vertical median as shown in the photo with the dotted lines. Unfold.
3. Two small squares are in front of you. Mark the diagonals of the right square. Unfold.
4. Fold the bottom left corner (of the small square on the left) to the intersection of the diagonals marked previously (of the small square on the right).
5. Fold the center corner to the left, in the direction of the arrow, according to the dotted lines.
6. Fold the right tip towards the center, in the direction of the arrow, according to the dotted lines.
7. Fold in half, passing the right part under the left part.
8. You get this.
9. Using a pencil, trace your figure as shown.
10. Cut out the figure following your pencil line.
11. Unfold. Your cherry blossom is ready!

Once your flowers are made, you can leave them as they are or mount them on a stem to make a pretty bouquet.

1. Cut the tip of your fold very slightly (less than 1mm).
2. Unfold the flower. You will observe a small hole in the middle, caused by the previous step.
3. Take a bunch of pistils and cut it in half. You get two small bunches of pistils.
4. Separate them in half to obtain four small bouquets of pistils.
5. Place a bunch of pistils at the top of one of the stems. Secure it with the tape and turn around the stem, stretching the tape. Don't hesitate, it only sticks well when stretched.
6. Continue to twist the tape down the stem. Once you get to the bottom, finish and cut the tape.
7. Pass the flower along the stem starting from the bottom and up to the pistil. Put tape to thicken the stem under the petals to hold them in the desired location.
8. Lower the tape slightly by rotating it along the stem, then cut it and finish by tightening it well around the stem.

NB: To perfect your flower, place your finger on the pistils to spread them slightly. If necessary, place a dot of glue under the flower at the base of the petals, so that they are well fixed and stay in place.

TADA Your origami cherry blossom is ready!

To give more body and depth to your cherry blossoms, you can have fun superimposing different sizes of flowers in various patterns and colors! Combine, for example, warm colors with cool colors, colors that are complementary to each other (blue and orange, yellow and purple, red and green, etc.), plain papers with patterned papers, etc.

To brighten up your cherry blossoms, it is also possible to make hearts and small flower pistils using punches. Here I use a thicker paper which I perforate and which I delicately bend, using a pencil, in order to give more volume to the pistil. To complete the look, I add a small colorful wooden bead!

I also chose to add small foliage to my cherry blossoms. Nothing complicated here, just cut out freehand (or following shapes previously drawn in pencil) leaves from your Japanese paper or from your colored gouache areas.

TADAM! I hope that this article has succeeded in inspiring you with some creative projects around cherry blossoms and above all that it has made you want to get started!

Some little origami chickadees have slipped into this article! If you like folding, a tutorial is available on the blog to teach you how to make this origami bird and then decorate them with paint, DIY Origami: Colorful Chickadees !

See you soon for new creative inspirations around Japanese paper and origami!

Take good care of yourself,

Adeline