Chinese New Year Origami Year of the Sheep class project

A sleeping sheep dreams atop a pile of rocks and is covered in a grass-print blanket and pillow

A close-up view of the Zodiac Green Sheep and the sweaters he is dreaming of which spin around when touched!

A top view of the entire project with clouds set above the sweaters with spacers.

This week's Origami project: Chinese New Year Zodiac animal, the green sheep! The sheep rests atop a pile of rocks and covers himself inside a grass-print sleeping bag and matching pillow case. The rocks and grass are my own photographs which I used to make signature paper patterns for this project. The sheep is dreaming of sweaters floating by beneath the cloud-covered skies. The sweaters are adhered to a paper plate which can be spun around to add a fun action-oriented aspect to the project. The Origami models are my own designs.

Origami monkeys have gone bananas!

This week's Origami project includes a few monkeys in a banana tree and they have definitely gone bananas! The monkey model is my own design and I took a diamond base and turned it into banana leaves by adding a few leaf markings. The kids really have enjoyed this project, especially all of the monkeying around!

This week's Origami class project: rainforest frogs enjoying a bromeliad plant!

My design of a modular Origami bromeliad plant

Say "hello" to my little friend!

This is me, the Origami Mami, at one of my Origami classes where I thought it would be fun to make a life-sized Parrot sitting on my shoulder. So, I did just that and taped the back wing tips to my shoulder and there he sat, perched atop my shoulder for the entire class! My students named him "Pepper"!

My design of an Origami parrot!

The parrots enjoy a view of the waterfall from beneath, nestled among the palm fronds!

Complete view of the class project

Close-up snapshot of a side view

 This is my Origami class project this week: "Parrot-dise" beneath a waterfall while sitting among the palm fronds and tree branches of the rainforest!

The Origami parrot is my original design (which I created specifically for this project) and the leaves are a common leaf model. Both the leaves and branch come from the same model...the branch is kept folded flat and the leaves model is created by folding the branch in half and glued together in the center. The waterfall is simply hand cut from colored copy paper and then it's done!

During my classes I enjoy teaching the kids about different aspects of my chosen theme and this week we'll be concentrating on the parrots. Many times I learn something new from the kids which is awesome and makes the project that much more fun to make.

The kids are a great inspiration for me and oftentimes make their own adjustments to the project (which I highly encourage) and this starts a sort of dominoe effect of creativity with one kid's ideas sparking another kid's idea and so on. We could probably continue adding to our weekly displays for hours from all of the cool ideas but, alas, we only have an hour! Luckily, since the kids take home their projects every week, they are free to keep on folding and cutting and creating as they wish! And they really do, as I'm told!

Origami Mami original design Origami Monarch Butterfly picture tutorial!

Get yourself a square piece of monarch butterfly paper...

First Origami Mami class project of 2015: Monarch Butterflies in an Eucalyptus grove with movable wings!

This is the very first Origami class project of the year: Monarchs in an Eucalyptus grove! I was inspired by a recent visit to Natural Bridges Butterfly Preserve in Santa Cruz where I had the opportunity to experience the high time of the monarch overwintering! I took this experience home and used it as inspiration for this project. The Eucalyptus tree print is my own photograph and the leaves are my own illustration I designed specifically for the project. The monarch paper print comes from an image of a monarch cluster I found on the web. I used this image to create my own Origami monarch paper design! The Origami butterfly design is my own and is super simple to fold. I then attached strings from the upper wings of the butterflies and pushed them through to the back side where once pulled, makes the butterfly wings move on the front side. It is like a mini butterfly puppet show! The kids really enjoy action-packed projects so I try to add some kinetic elements wherever I can.