Making a paper heart is so easy and fun. With just a few simple folds you can create an origami heart in less than 5 minutes! Paper folding is such a relaxing activity – Low mess crafts are the best!
Use these paper hearts to decorate for Valentine’s Day, or give them to your loved ones to show your appreciation. Origami hearts also make fun decorations and favours for weddings, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day!
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How to Make a Paper Heart
Materials:
- Red paper cut into a square (or origami paper)
Check Out The Video Tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- All you'll need is 1 square piece of paper, any size. We cut red printer paper into an 8.5 x 8.5 inch square for this tutorial.
Step 2: Fold the paper into four equal parts
- Fold the paper in half by bringing the bottom edge of the paper up to meet the top edge. Run your fingers along the fold to sharply crease it
- Then unfold the paper.
- Rotate the paper and fold the bottom edge up to the top, again making sure to run your fingers along the fold to crease it.
Step 3: Make the point of the heart
- Open up the paper again and fold the bottom edge up to meet the fold in the center.
- Flip the paper over.
- Fold the bottom left edge up and in to meet the center fold.
- Repeat with the right side, folding the bottom right edge up and in to meet the center fold.
- Flip the paper over again. You should see a little "pocket" on the bottom.
Step 4: Fold another point
- Fold the left edge in to meet the center fold.
- Repeat on the right side.
- Fold the top left edge down to meet the center.
- Repeat on the right side.
- Fold the paper in half by bringing the top point down to meet the bottom point.It can be a little difficult to get the middle folded down properly. To make it easier, stick your finger inside the fold to straighten it out from the inside.
- Lift the top half of the paper and tuck it inside the little pocket.
Step 5: Finish folding the heart
- Put your finger under the top layer of paper and push it up and flat to your working surface.Then push the top layer of paper down, matching up the fold lines.
- Repeat on the other side.
- Fold the top left corner down and in to meet the fold.
- Repeat on the right side. You should now have 2 points on the top.
- Fold the top left point down.You can fold it as little or as much as you'd like, but to ensure it's even on both sides it's easiest to fold it down to meet the fold line.
- Fold the right point down to match the left.
- Your paper heart is complete!
Helpful Tip:
- Try to make your folds as straight and as crisp as possible. This will give you the nicest looking heart!
What kind of paper is needed to make an origami heart?
You need a square piece of paper, or paper you can cut into a square shape. We used 24 lb coloured printer paper to make our paper hearts.
Origami paper is, of course, a great choice to make paper hearts. Really, any paper that isn’t too thick will work, since you need to make crisp folds.
Thicker paper like cardstock and scrapbook paper will work as well, it’s just a lot harder to make the folds.
What size paper works best to make a paper heart?
You can make an origami heart with any size of square paper, but the smaller the paper, the more difficult the folds are to make cleanly. We made three different sizes of hearts with squares that were 4-1/2 inches, 6-1/2 inches, and 8-1/2 inches.
What can I do with my folded paper heart?
These adorable origami hearts can be used in lots of fun ways! Here are a few options:
- Give the heart as a Valentine or gift
- Glue the heart on the front of a card
- Add candies, chocolates, or a small gift into the pocket on the back
- Write a name on the heart and turn it into a place setting
- Slip a love note into the pocket on the back
- Hang them up as decorations for Valentine’s Day, a wedding shower, or any other occasion
Learn how to make a paper heart and use them as cute little decorations and tokens of love for Valentine’s Day, or for any time of the year. These hearts are so fun to make, you’ll want to make them in all different sizes and colours!
Here’s even more paper craft ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon |  Barnes and Noble |  Books- A- Million |  Indiebound |  Indigo |  Amazon Canada
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