Paper rosettes

I was asked to make a couple of paper rosettes for the decorations of a baby baptism party. The interesting part is that I received the paper for the rosettes, and it was Japanese with traditional patterns. A couple of the patterns were with samurai and geishas (copies after old paintings). It was a challenge for me to fold this paper, I would have liked to admire it all day long instead. I was afraid that the samurai and geishas will not be visible enough after the folds. But since this was a fan-like model and I have fans with this kind of drawings on them and they look pretty nice, I tried to overcome my fears and I started folding the first piece of paper. After breaking the ice, everything went smoothly and this is the result.
I am very found of the rosettes, especially of those with cranes (both the cranes with red wings and the origami-like ones) and those with sakura patterns. What are your favorite ones?

Scattered dreams

Tutorial - School backpack

School is starting on Monday and children are preparing their backpacks. The joy of first day of school has to be spread among the dolls. But they do not have any backpacks. So what's to be done?
Simple: you just have to grab 3 squares of paper (I recommend to be 15 cm squares), scissors, a little bit of glue (even if you don't see glue in the tutorial, you can add some when you add the straps to the backpack) and start folding.
If you want, you can also guide yourself by this video-tutorial.

You will need 3 squares of paper with a15 cm side. One will be used for the back, one for the front and one for the straps and the cover.

Folding the back:

The back is ready!

Folding the front:

The front is ready!

Let's assembly them:

Now, you have to make the straps and the cover. You will use one piece of paper for them and scissors.
Start with the straps:

The straps are ready!

Continue with the cover, made from the paper that remained from step 3 (half of the big square).

Finish the cover and assembly it with the rest of the backpack. 

The backpack is ready! The dolls will be really happy to use it. If they do not know how to share it, you can make more. One for each doll. And use different colors...

Just Pink

Sunflower

There shouldn't be a summer without sunflowers I said once. So here we are, this summer's sunflower is a crepe paper one, perfect for a bride to use instead of a bouquet. Maybe you've got a glimpse of it in one of my previous posts: https://cridiana-origami.blogspot.com/2019/07/summer-vibe.html

Sunflowers symbolize happiness, adoration, loyalty and longevity. They are bright and cherry. Since sunflowers are considered to be a symbol of good luck, they are the perfect touch for a summer wedding day, especially when the wedding's theme is a rustic one.

Did you know that the sunflower is native to North America (3000 BC)? Then it went to Europe, around 1500 and then it came back to America by the late 19th century. You can find more information here: https://www.sunflowernsa.com/all-about/history/  I am amazed whenever I find out that some plants being so representative for my country's cuisine are actually just acclimatized from other regions. I wonder what would have done Florin Piersic in his movies with Mărgelatu if there wasn't for the sunflower seeds?

Paper mobile - Red and pink birds

Hi all! I present you another paper mobile made for a sweet little baby girl. For this one I liked to go with the social norm that states: since the baby is a girl, this means pink and red. Actually I was recently wondering why when we say pink we think of girls and when we say blue we think of boys.  I found this article: https://www.livescience.com/22037-pink-girls-blue-boys.html
It was a little bit disappointing because some academics believe these color associations to be nothing more than mass marketing campaigns even though on wiki there is a list with old paintings where girls were wearing pink and boys blue.

But let's go back to origami. I used a combination of three models: the birds, the diamonds and a kusudama. I searched for an easy one, with no more than 12 modules, and I remembered I folded Kusudama Bouganville a while ago (you can see the old post here: http://cridiana-origami.blogspot.com/2012/04/din-nou-sakuradama.html). I gave it a try and it was a pleasant fold. Thank you Isa Klein for inventing this model and sharing the diagram with us.
I used again paper from the Tuttle Publishing origami paper set. Even though the paper is thin, it folds well and it does not break. I also like the texture and I just adore the patterns. The paper has Japanese flowers on it, more specifically sakura ones, so it makes you think of spring even though we are in the middle of the summer scorching heat. 

As you are accustomed, under each picture you can find the link to the diagram or movie. I hope you will enjoy them :)

Model: Paper diamond
Tutorial: http://designoform.com/diy-party/tutorial-paper-diamonds-diy/

 Model: Bouganville
Author: Isa Klein
Diagram: http://diagramascia.blogspot.com/2012/04/bouganville-diagrama.html

Model: Mandarin/Seagull
Author: Simon Andersen
Video tutorial: https://www.paperkawaii.com/origami-bird-tutorial-mandarin-or-seagull-simon-anderson/