Origami Rose in Bloom

With my second wedding anniversary, I was looking back through the traditional gifts for anniversaries and found pictures of origami roses, and thought to myself... I can do that!

They make a wonderfully romantic gift for girlfriends, fiances, wives or even moms. It's something you put time and effort into and will be cherished. And if you have one of those girls who knows the meaning of different color roses, I'll include a guide for what colors mean what.

DISCLAIMER: please be nice, this is my first instructable. Any positive feedback on how to improve this instructable is greatly appreciated.

- A square piece of paper, in any desired color.  It might be helpful if the opposite side of the paper is a different color. An ideal size is 20 cm x 20 cm. I will be using blue for the right side and white for the wrong side

- Pair of tweezers

- Pen to mark reference lines (if desired)

- Pencil or pen to curl petals

- ***Time and lots of patience. IMPORTANT! If at any time you feel frustrated, take a break and come back. This can get frustrating and if you get frustrated you can easily mess up.****


Rose colors and meanings:
- Red: romance and love
- Deep Pink: "thank you"
- Regular Pink: happiness
- Light Pink: "sympathy" or condolences
- White: innocence and purity
- Yellow: friendship and caring
- Lavender: falling in love or enchantment
- Orange: desire
- Black (deep deep red): unfortunately has come to symbolize death. Not a good gift idea
- Blue: mystery, rarity and attaining the impossible
- Mixture of white and red: unity

If you have questions about other meanings, I recommend http://www.whatrosesmean.com/

Take the paper, wrong side up, and fold in half.

Reopen the paper and fold each end to the crease made in the previous step. (pic 1)

Unfold. Turn the paper 90 degrees and repeat the process.

The creases on the paper should be like the ones in pic 2.

Now we are going to fold to the outermost creases shown in pic 1

Fold the paper, so that the edge meets this crease. Take the right corner and fold diagonally, meeting with the creases on the paper (pic 2)

Repeat the process on all four sides. Unfold. The paper should have the creases shown in pic 3.

Now fold the paper in half along both of the diagonals. (pic 1)

Fold in the four corners to the outer creases formed in the first step (pic 2)

Make another fold diagonally to the crease made by folding down the four corners. Repeat for each corner (pic 3)

Once unfolding, the paper should have the creases shown in pic 4.

Fold down the for corners once more and turn the paper over. (pic 5)

Now, focusing on one corner again, make a valley fold along the pink line shown in pic 1.

We will now focus on the smaller pink line on the right in pic 2. Make a valley fold by bringing the right corner to the left, resulting in pic 3

Now reverse the fold so that the top of the new triangle is underneath the fold behind it as in pic 4

Make a valley fold on the line shown in pic 1 to make the paper look like pic 2.

Reverse the fold as in the previous step to reveal pic 3.

Referencing the pink line in pic 1, fold the edge of the paper up, forming the petal as shown in pic 2.

Repeat steps 6-8 for the other three corners. The rose should now look like pic 3

Turn the flower over. Pic 1 is the top view.

I have drawn x's in pic 1 to help in this next step. Gently press in the four sides on the x's as shown in pic 2

Place your fingers into the four holes you just made. Carefully press your fingers together and twist clockwise resulting in pic 3.

If desired, use a pair of tweezers and twist the center further, also pressing down towards the center of the flower as in pic 4

This step might take some practice. Be careful not to over tighten as you might start to twist the rose back apart.

Take a pencil a wrap the petals around the pencil, holding them there for about 30 seconds so that they will curl. (pic 1)

Do the same for the inner 4 petals as in pic 2

The final result should be similar to pic 3.

Ta da! You just made a origami rose!