Origami Heart Bookmarks

It's only January, but there is Valentine's Day in there air everywhere I go lately. Unfortunately it's been following my boyfriend around as well, and he never fails to mention that he hates the holiday. It's not because he's a scrooge or anything, it's simply because he doesn't like that it's such a "Hallmark Holiday." I am not a V-Day hater myself, but I really do see his point, so I started trying to think of ways to de-consumerize the holiday. That's when Pinterest led me to this really great blog about making origami hearts. I tried making them and they're just as cute as I thought they would be.  See?

Here's how you do it:

1.  Start with a square piece of paper.

2.  Fold the paper in half, then fold it in half again.

3.  Open the paper, then fold the bottom portion to the middle crease.

4.  Turn the paper over and fold up triangular edges.  Then turn the paper over again and fold the point of the triangle up to the top of the paper.

5.  Turn the paper over again so it looks like this:

6.  Use your finger to make an opening, then flatten the opening to form a triangle.  Repeat this on the other side as well so it's symmetrical.

7.  Fold a triangle from the edge on both sides.

8.  Fold a mini triangle from each peak.

9.  Turn the paper over and you'll see the beginnings of a heart.

10.  Fold the rectanglular paper in so that it forms a square behind the heart, then fold those squares into triangles so that they are hidden behind the heart.

Et voila!  Your heart should look like this:

You can make these little guys in any color or size, and if you don't feel like using them as bookmarks, you can put them together to make a heart-flower:

Or you can just leave a pile of little origami hearts on your table like this:

Any way you fold it, it's going to be cute.
xoxo
Laura