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Origami Tulip

The tulip is a flower with lots of character, and this origami tulip is no less so.  It uses one piece of paper for the petals, another for the leaf and stem. 

 

Start with a square of colored origami paper, yellow works for us. 

Make the traditional origami square base

Position the square base so that the opening is at the top of the square. 

Now fold the right and left corners into the center, and unfold again to make crease lines. 

See photos below. 

Origami Tulip

 

origami square base        left and right corners folded to centerline        left and right corners unfolded

Now fold the right and left corners to the crease lines that you made in the previous step. 

The fold again as shown below. 

Flip the piece over and repeat on the back side. 

corners folded to crease marks        corners folded again        corners folded on back side

Now fold the lower edges onto the centerline. 

Flip the piece over and repeat on the back side.

lower corners folded to centerline        tulip ready for expansion       

Now hold the bottom pointed corner in one hand, and use the fingers of the other hand to open the tulip bulb. 

When you're done expanding the bulb, it will look like the picture below:

expanded tulip

Now we move on to the leaf and stem. 

Use a piece of green origami paper; place the green side face down. 

Make a valley fold along the diagonal as shown.

square of green origami paper for tulip leaf and stem        valley fold on diagonal       

Now fold the top and left edges onto the centerline, making a kite. 

Then the lower edges of the kite are folded to the centerline, creating a diamond.

origami kite base        diamond formed from kite      

Fold the diamond in half lengthwise. 

Then fold edge A-B back as shown, then flip the piece over and fold the edge C-D back as well. 

Now unfold C-D (just C-D, not A-B) to reveal the crease mark.

 diamond folded in half        folding the tulip stem    more stem folding        even more stem folding  

Fold C-E to the crease mark, then re-fold the crease created by the C-D fold. 

Then fold down the front flap along a line F-G. 

Make sure that this last fold does not overlap the pocket shown.   

almost done with the stem       stem completed, start the leaf        where to fold the leaf        leaf folded

 

Now take the top of the leaf and bend it backwards and down a bit. 

Insert the yellow bulb all the way into the pocket. 

You can use a little glue or double-sided tape to make it stick securely.

leaf tip curled back       

flower inserted into pocket on stem

And now your origami tulip is done!

completed origami tulip