littletree makes...an origami bow

Happy Monday all! Something a little bright and crafty to start the week, these super fun origami bows! Last Monday my regular crafting friend and I got together for a fun packed afternoon of making, we tried all sorts of paper crafts as my friend has a stash of pretty papers from card making, but this origami bow was definitely my favourite.

We found the project through Jessica Jones blog How About Orange (she has quite a few origami projects on her blog) which linked back to this excellent step by step tutorial written/photographed by Helen of the blog Let's Create. I used to do a fair bit of origami growing up so apart from the odd tricky bit this was pretty easy for me, but my friend who hadn't done any also got the hang very quickly so I suggest you give it a try even if you haven't done any origami before.

image from Let's Create

In the tutorial the bow ends are cut to shape (red bow), but you can easily leave them as they are (brown paper bow) or trim them neatly (purple bow). I recommend using a medium thickness of paper, too thick and the folds won't be crisp and you will find it hard to manoeuvre the paper. To make the finished bow neat I used a few small pieces of sellotape on the reverse to secure the bow shape in place.

The end result is so pretty, ideal for topping a special present. You could make matching/contrasting bows for your gift wrapping at christmas, add buttons, ribbon etc. Or if you were really brave make huge bows as decorations for a wedding or party? Let me know if you have a go at these I would love to see your bows! Have a good week friends...x

all images taken by me unless stated otherwise