“I want to make that” she said, holding up a picture torn from an ancient magazine.
It was an origami box, and I figured it was a pretty cool school holiday project so we set about looking for simple instructions online, and finding some paper.
Of course we didn’t have any lovely origami paper, we didn’t even have any plain coloured paper, we just had boring, white printer paper. So while the girls attempted to work through the various instructions we’d found, I decided to make our own origami paper.
Now that we had some cool patterned paper to play with we perfected our box making method quite quickly and made a heap of them.
Here is how we made our origami star boxes:
The only really tricky part is the first bit, the rest is simple enough for even little hands to do with help… but if my instructions make no sense, then try these ones which are animated!
If you’d like to make your own origami star boxes and need some pretty paper, you can download our printable origami paper here. The pdf comes with four different coloured and patterned squares, just print them on to plain boring printer paper, cut them out as accurately as you can and you are ready to fold!
Origami star boxes are good for storing all sorts of little things… even dinosaurs!
Kate says
What a great project to do on the school holidays. I bet your children made a few of them. :)
Danya Banya says
I’ve got some origami paper already! Yay!
Maxabella says
Tricky, but what a great tutorial!
I’m also making those lolly bickies – packed full of goodness!!! x
Bek {Just For Daisy} says
Lovely! This was one of my favourite classroom activities – origami! Amazing for following instructions! Makes for a great listening task!
Kate - An Everyday Story says
Great tut Kate :) I have piles and piles of origami paper from when we lived in Japan just waiting for when the little ones are ready for some origami :) I love it.
Chelsea says
I’m always scared to mess up origami but this tutorial is great!! My son would love to try this.
Penny says
Fantastic Kate! I love how you make these sorts of tutorials soooo easy to follow. Pinned :)
[email protected] says
Ooo so pretty! Look forward to making these. Love the paper too Kate :) xo P
Kelly says
I love origami as a kid! So much fun to see what you can create from a sheet of paper! And these turned out beautifully :-)
Kate says
I love these Kate – it’s all I can do to keep from pulling out a piece of paper and folding one together right now :-)
Eva @ The Multitasking Mummy says
These are gorgeous and would go great as a little gift box. I’d love to make these for christmas.
Debs says
They look so sweet! They’d make gorgeous little treat boxes for a party!
Nae peters says
Very cute!
I wonder if I have any funky paper to pull this off. I’ll give it a go
Rachel | Racheous says
I really enjoy origami. My inner perfectionist loves how precise it can be. I need to use my huge stack of pretty papers to make something like this and impress my kids! :P
Caz says
My girls are going to think I’m magic when we make these, thank you in advance! :D Super cute, I can tell they will be a hit already.
Kelly says
So pretty Kate!
[email protected] Little Bookcase says
Oh, how I love origami.
This was always a staple activity when I ever taught Year 6. I’d always have a pile of beautiful paper and the kids would fold and fold and fold paper cranes until our classroom was filled with them.
I’ve never made the star boxes before. Might have to give it a go with Cammy.
[email protected] says
I’ve always been terrible at origami but your tutorial makes it look like I could actually make something resembling your wonderful pic! Clever lady!
Cheryl says
These are great. My tween will just love them. As we live in Japan, she has truly got into origami, and origami paper is the one thing we have masses of. That ticks the box for her, and a storage place for her four year old brothers dinosaurs… Ticks another box too.
Thank you for a great idea!
Emsticker says
Thank you, do you have any tutorial video to support it ?
katepickle says
sorry no video for this one, but I’m sure you’d find several on youtube as it’s a pretty common origami pattern.