Learning Origami: Christmas Stocking 

With the holiday season in full swing, what better way to celebrate than my creating your own Christmas decorations! For this blog post, I will be making Christmas stocking origami, Christmas stockings are a crucial part to celebrating Christmas in my home, and are hung every year above my fireplace. Thanks to Practical Origami: A step-by-step guide to the ancient art of paper folding, I can follow simple steps to create mini-stockings that I am able to decorate with all throughout this holiday season.

In order to make the Christmas stocking, the materials necessary included one square piece of paper with a different-colored reverse side. The book stated that, "This traditional model was originally a napkin fold, but has been adapted here to be made from conventional paper" (Beech, 210). After completing this origami design, I personally would recommend using gift wrapping tissue paper as opposed to construction paper, due to construction paper being more difficult to crease and fold. 

 The first step to creating a stocking is, "With the color you wish to be predominant in the design on top, fold up a narrow strip at the lower edge" (Beech, 210). As I followed the instructions of the book, I noticed that a thinner border at the bottom of the paper, looked more appealing than a thicker border. This is because, a thinner border gave a more distinct look to the stocking.

The most challenging part of creating this origami design was creasing and creating folds in the paper. This is because, I decided to use construction paper, instead of tissue paper, which would be ideal to making a perfect and precise, origami Christmas stocking.

Below are 10 simple steps to creating a Christmas stocking:

Step One: With the side you wish to  be predominant,  fold a strip at the lower piece of the paper.

Step One: With the side you wish to 

be predominant, 

fold a strip at the lower piece of the paper.

Step Two: Flip the paper over horizontally,
and fold in half.

Step Four: Fold the left-handed
corners towards the center.

Step Three: Turn paper 90 degrees
anticlockwise, and fold the sides to be
aligned with the center crease.

    Step Six: Fold newer edge across

           to right-handed edge.

Step Five: Fold left-hand corner across

to inner edges from Step Four.

Step Eight: Turn stocking around, 
    so that narrow piece is on top. 
      Fold model in half, vertically.

Step Seven: Fold upper layer back, 

across to the left.

Step Nine: Swing "toe" of stocking, 

outwards and forwards.

Step Ten: Lock model by opening model, 

lifting border by tucking upper 

corner and folding stocking, 

creating a pocket.

All in all, making these origami Christmas stockings was very informative and entertaining. After making a few Christmas stockings, I feel as if my knowledge as well as my skill-level in completing origami crafts has grown. I will definitely be decorating my house with these Christmas stockings throughout this holiday season! I believe that my knowledge has increased on the skill of making origami, and I am eager to learn more from the book, Practical Origami: A step-by-step guide to the ancient art of paperfolding. I make many of my Christmas ornaments, and my favorite thing about the holidays is spending time with family.  Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Do you make any homemade Christmas decorations?  What is your favorite thing about the holidays?

Beech, Rick. Practical Origami: a Step-by-Step Guide to the Ancient Art of Paperfolding. Hermes House, 2006.

It Feels A Lot Like Christmas - Origami Decorations

Origami Decorations

Today is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas. It is a day full of cheer and happiness. It is a holiday where spending time with family is the key. It brings people closer together. This holiday also allows people to strengthen their bonds and just have a good time. People decorate their Christmas tree with ornaments. However, to celebrate this holiday I decided to just fold a lot of origami creations and put it on my Christmas tree as decorations. The decorations that go on your Christmas tree is an important part of the holiday. 

Thanks to the book Fun With Origami by Harry C. Helfman, I am able to fold origami creatures that I could use for my Christmas decorations. It doesn't matter what you decorate your Christmas tree is, it just matters that you are having a good time doing it. And while I was decorating my Christmas tree with origami creatures I was having a good time. I had on some Christmas music while I was putting them on my Christmas tree. Origami creations could be ideal holiday decorations, which is why I decorated my tree with some origami creations. "Origami are ideal party favors, holiday decorations or intriguing conversations pieces these colorful three-dimensional objects can be created at home" (Helfman 2). Putting them on is the easy part, but actually folding them is very time consuming. However, thanks to origami I was patient. Being patient is a benefit that origami has. "It is a fold art which helps teach patience, accuracy, concentration and peaceful accomplishments" (Helfman 2). These are some of the benefits that origami has. After doing origami I could feel that my patience and concentration are improving. However, as for accuracy, I will not improve on due to my terrible eyesight. 

Here is how I decorated my Christmas tree with origami creatures. I will post the steps of making some of these creatures later on. 

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. 

Would you consider your Christmas tree with origami folds? What is your favorite thing about Christmas?

Decorating my Christmas tree with my origami creations was very fun and calming. I do not have a lot of Christmas ornaments so I decided to improvise and decorate my tree with origami designs that I already done. And after decorating, I must say that my tree does not look too bad. I hope that you guys will try decorating your own Christmas tree with your origami decorations. However, I do not recommend leaving your origami designs on the tree lights because paper is flammable. Origami paper is still paper so it is possible that it could catch on fire.

Helfman, Harry Carmozin. Fun with Origami: 17 Easy-to-Do Projects and 24 Sheets of Origami Paper. Dover, 1991.

Snack Hacks- Ram Rice Bowl

If you're anything like me, you'll understand what it's like to be a picky eater. "This LITTLE lamb and its fluffy white fleece is simple yet delightful" in its own cute and unique way! There's no need to worry about crazy surprises in the bowl that you can't already see; perfect for the picky eaters. 

The main ingredients of the tiny ram, are rice and one boiled egg (use a quail egg and colored rice to make the shiny sheep just a tad bit more special!) The ornaments such as its eyes, mouth, horns and rosy cheeks are made with little cut scraps of ham and turkey; a wonderfully sweet combo! Would you think of giving it a taste??

Extra egg-stravagant pieces that could go along with our petite rice lamb are mini slices of cucumber shaped like treats for our sheep! It's a cute extension to the creation, and a delicious healthy veggie to balance the snack!

This ram rice bowl took a very short time to make, and is perfect for those beginners in cooking such as myself. Depending on who or for what occasion you would make this for, variances can occur in the ingredients you use (quail eggs opposed to regular chicken eggs, or seaweed as the funny faces opposed to the turkey or ham). Overall, it was a fun and decorative quick snack-hack that I would definitely recommend for you to try, whether you're the one making or eating it!