Paper, scissors, glue and ribbons are all you need to make these origami angels to hang on your Christmas tree.
But, if want to go a step farther and make them look really pretty, you may add a few extras. With a few flower buds, rolls of washi tape and craft scissors, you can make these origami angels in different colors and styles!
For this tutorial, the hemline of the origami angel’s dress and the edges of the wings were trimmed using craft scissors.
Take a rectangular piece of paper (I used craft paper). Fold lengthwise; one portion should be wider than the other. The width of the shorter piece is the height of the angel’s body.
Using craft scissors, trim both long edges of Piece “A” and one long edge of Piece “B”.
The yellow line is the “long edge”; the green line is the “short edge”.
To make the angel’s body (dress), take Piece “B” and point one short edge towards you. Going in an outward direction, fold the paper into an accordion. It does not matter how narrow nor wide the folds are so long as they are uniform. If you’re not confident that you can create uniformly sized folds, you can use a ruler and pencil to create marks on the two long edges so that you’ll have a guide as you fold.
To make the angel’s wings (or sleeves, if you prefer), take Piece “A” and position one long edge toward you. Again going in an outward direction, fold the paper into an accordion. The width of the fold should be the same as the width of the folds you made on Piece “B”.
Pressing the folds of Piece “A” tightly, fold the accordion in the middle to create a paper fan.
Apply glue on the center of the paper fan.
Take Piece “B” and, pressing one end with your fingers, insert it in the middle of the paper fan.
Press the paper fan to glue Piece “B” and Piece “A” together. Allow the glue to dry.
Now, for the head. You may use styrofoam balls or wooden beads. I find it hard to find anything that’s the right size so I used paper to make the head.
Take a piece of paper that is the same texture and color as the one used for the origami angel’s body and wings. Cut a strip 10 inches long with the width equal to the fold of the two accordions you made earlier. Starting from one short end of the strip, loop the paper to create a small circle. Glue the end of the strip to keep the round shape in place. Make a second loop that is bigger than the first then make a third loop that is bigger than the second. Apply glue on the other end of the strip and press the bottom of the three loops to secure. You now have your angel’s “head”.
Take an eight-inch length of narrow ribbon and glue both ends on the bottom of “head”.
This is the part where I switched from a water-based glue to a glue gun. Using a glue gun, attach the head on top of the angel’s wings with the ribbon sandwiched in between. The angel is complete at this point and you may already hang it on your Christmas tree. But, if you want to adorn the angel a little bit, now is the time to do so.
For my blue angel, I glue white ribbon between the head and the body. Then, I glued red rosebuds (they’re made of fabric) on the center of the ribbon. Not only do the ribbon and rosebuds add color and textural contrast to the origami angel, they also hide the not-so-pretty space between the three pieces of paper.
For variety, you may use different colors of paper for your origami angels. And instead of trimming the edges using craft scissors, you may use washi tape instead.
Just press washi tape where you cut using craft scissors. Additionally, cover the strip of paper for the head with washi tape as well before creating the three loops.
Have fun making origami angels!
