Origami Paper Crane W/ a Twist

Imagination takes us far... After making hundreds of paper cranes for school and elsewhere on my own time, I have made my fair share of mistakes in that time.

In this project, what was planned to be regular paper crane folding turned into a creative spin on events, with a some cool "happy" accidents to add.

• Paper: Any size (preferably large enough so that your design is usable)
• Nothing else :) Just yourself
• Optional: Scissors (for initial cuts)

The basic goal is to make sure that the piece of paper we are dealing with is square in shape.

If you are using an A4 sized paper or any rectangular paper, feel free to follow along this step.

Here I basically walk you through a few things:

1. Take a corner of the sheet and fold till that point (image 1) makes a triangle.
2. Then fold the side of the paper (the left-hand side) that is not overlapped by the triangle; and make a crease
3. Use this crease to then tear the paper; shown in image 5.
4. Fold the paper at two ends to get a diagonal folded crease in the middle.

Now, make sure that the square is folded in half diagonally.

1. Make sure it is folded
2. Take a corner of this right triangle and bring it to the point where the right-angle forms (bottom-right corner)
3. Do step 2 for both ends, then we are going to invert one side to make a square with a unique fold.
4. Now, if you follow along you should have a square on the right and a right triangle on the left.
5. Do step 4 again but now on the back
6. You should end up with a square, that now can open up or down...

The previous folds should give use the desired shape of the paper square.

1. Bring one side of the folded paper to the other side --> Think of the paper having four wings: two on each side
2. Now, one side of the folded paper, bring the right corner and line it with the center; do the same for the opposite side
3. Once you are down, you should have a kite shape with a square behind it
4. Now flip the paper over and make the same KITE shape on the back.
5. This is a fun part... Now unfold the kite shape, so now you are left with some creases; these creases will help for the next step
6. Next, bring the bottom of the triangle up so that the bottom point is matched with the top point
7. Flip it and do the same; so, you end up with a straight-lined open space below the top triangle feature
8. Now just fold the "legs" (The two long triangle segments below the top triangle) outward, as shown in the last image.

Almost there!!

1. Now that we made the folds with the "legs" they should have made creases on the paper
2. Now unfold that outward leg fold, and open the side just a little (image 2)
3. Fold the leg in on itself, between the sides you just opened (image 3)
4. Now repeat steps 2-3 for the other side

Now for the simplest step of all.

1. From the previous steps you should have a long triangle protruding outward
2. Now fold the triangle into a head shape (basically a smaller triangle)
3. This should form a crease, that you can now use to do an inward fold
4. Ta-Da the head is done!
5. Now just a final touch --> take the top triangle of the crane's body (image 4) and fold it down such that its reaches the bottom point (image 5)

Phew! the crane is done!

This one of the first bonus features of this design!

1. Now that we have the crane from the previous steps; let's start from there
2. Now unfold the left section of the crane where its tail is, that should get you a nice flat side

You can use this design as a decoration for your projects with some colors to spice it up or as some fancy wall decor!

WOW. Another bonus design as well?!

Okay this one is multipurpose I might add. Here the design can be used as a bird pecking or catching fish, but also be used as a creature chomping on some delicious lunch (For this one you have to keep it up from the ground, and flap around a bit)

1. Simple steps really. From the wall-mounted crane, just flatten the body of the crane on itself
2. This flattening should get the head of the crane above the paper, and as you bring the two sides of the paper up and down, the head moves!!