Valentine Origami

Aimee is going to show us how to make this adorable little paper valentine.

Personalize it with your own sentiment. Aimee has inserted coupons good for one free chore.

 Cut your paper (you pick the color) into a square. 8x8 or 6x6 or 10x10. The smaller the square, the smaller the heart will be. For starters you might want to begin with a bigger square until you get the hang of the folding. Fold your square in half. (We call this the hot dog fold)

 Next fold the and crease the paper in half again. This is the hamburger fold at our house. After creasing the paper, open the folds back up to reveal the creases just made.

Fold the bottom quarter of the paper up to the center crease. Then FLIP the whole thing over.

 This step reminds me of paper airplane building in freshman study hall. Fold your edges with the quarter crease up towards the top of your heart. Creating a nice bottom point to your heart. Then FLIP again.

Fold each outer edge towards your center crease. Making nice crisp creases. A bone folder helps with the creasing, or a ruler. We weren't going for showroom quality paper crafting. Just a fun family paper craft.

 So, at this point, this is how your paper should look.

 Now, we get a little tricky. Fold the top part of your heart again forming a triangle towards the center crease.

Bearing in mind the portion of the paper which will form the point of your heart or bottom. See where Aimee is pointing?

 Fold the top two sharp points towards one another. Bottom to top.

 Your heart should look like this.

Now, again a little trick. Open the flaps as best as possible to fold a crease and create a corner like in the photograph. Do this to both flaps.

 Now, this is how your heart should appear at this point. I will refer to the top as the rounded part of your heart taking shape. Do you see the top left and right or the heart?

 Fold those top left and right flaps of your heart towards the seam created in the previous fold.

Fold the tiny point created forward and create the boxy rounded top of your heart.

 Open your heart slightly.

 Find the bottom point pocket and insert the corner into the corner.

The back should look something like this.

 The front has this neat little fortune cookie like pocket to insert your greetings. Or if you are feeling extravagant...a gift card could be inserted. Just use a 12x12 sheet of paper to insert larger greetings.

 Smaller paper makes smaller hearts.

This one is just right!

This paper craft has been brought to you by Aimee. She is self motivated and comes up with very clever ideas. An independent person indeed.

I think white paper would be fine for this craft and then embellish the whole project with stickers or glitter and make it your own Happy Valentine's Day.