Origami Puffy Hearts

In February, I was hunting around for some Valentine-related crafts. I have out grown the age of giving cards to all my classmates (which are now my co-workers), and I was not throwing a party so my choice of crafts outside of those categories was limited. I had seen these cute puffy hearts being sold on Etsy before and so I finally decided to look up how to make them.

They are very easy – I would say, even easier to make than origami stars. However, their disadvantage is that they require scissors to give them their final shape. Origami stars still take the prize for being my preferred go-to craft for when I am watching a movie or sitting during long car rides.

However, if you want to make puffy hearts too, here is how to do it:

I started off with a strip of regular printer paper measuring 2 x 10 cm.

Fold up one corner to the edge of the paper to create a triangle on one end of the strip.

Fold the triangle over along the strip. Keep your folds crisp and tight.

Fold that paper triangle down towards the edge.

Continue folding the paper triangle along the strip until you reach the end.

If you keep the paper tight as it is folded around this paper triangle then the final step will be easier. 

Continue folding.

Stop when you have about 1.5 cm of the paper strip left. 

If you have been folding the strip as it is oriented in the picture, then take the top right hand corner of the free hanging strip and fold it down.

Tuck the end of the strip into the paper triangle.

A completely folded triangle with the end tucked in looks like this.

Round off the two corners along the longest edge of the triangle with a pair of scissors. 

Apply pressure to the centre of the long edge of the triangle and voila! It will puff into a heart. It may take a few tries to get a heart to puffy up properly but don't give up!

And that is my very basic, first tutorial on anything. Because the hearts have holes where the corners are cut off, it would be very easy to string them into a garland and hang them. 

Happy folding!