By Show Me Step by StepPublished
Based on a video by Easy Origami and Crafts.
This origami cat stands up on four legs with pointed ears and a tail that curls up behind it. It folds from one square of paper with no cuts and no glue. The channel Easy Origami and Crafts folds it in orange on a black table, slowly enough to follow. Fold the same model in black paper and you have a black cat for Halloween, ready for a mantel, a party table or a trick-or-treat bowl.
The video uses a 20 cm (about 8 inch) square of standard origami paper, 70 to 80 gsm. Bigger paper is easier for a first try, since the head folds get small. For a black cat, pick paper that is black on both sides, or black on one side and white on the other. Two-sided black looks cleaner because no white shows at the ears and tail. Kraft paper and good copy paper cut square also work. Avoid card stock. It cracks at the collapse in step 7.
New to folding? Start with how to make origami or a classic like the origami crane. Both teach the habit of sharp, exact creases this cat depends on.
The folder rates it accessible to advanced beginners. Most steps are plain valley folds to a line you can see. Two steps ask more of you: the collapse in step 7 and the head in step 8. Plan on 20 to 30 minutes for your first cat. The second takes half that, because your hands remember the sequence. Children around 9 and up can fold it with a grown-up nearby for the head. Younger kids can do the first four steps, hand the paper over for the tricky part, then draw the face at the end.
Once the cat stands, curl the tail by wrapping it around a pencil. Give a black cat a face with a white or yellow gel pen: two eyes, a tiny nose, whiskers. Glow-in-the-dark paint on the eyes is fun for a spooky shelf. If the cat leans, pinch the legs flat and widen its stance.
Line up a row of black cats along a windowsill with Halloween window silhouettes. Add paper bats overhead and a few paper pumpkins at their feet. Folded in other colors, the cat makes a sweet place card, a gift topper, or a desk buddy for a cat lover.
10 steps · about 11 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Lay your square flat, colored side down if it has one. Bring one corner across to the opposite corner to make a triangle. Line up the points exactly, then press the fold flat from the middle out to the edges. Crease it well and unfold. That diagonal line down the middle is the center line that every later step folds to.
Tip
Run a fingernail or bone folder along every crease. Sharp lines make the collapse much easier.
Turn the paper so the crease runs up and down, like a diamond. Take the lower right edge and fold it in so it lies along the center crease. Crease it flat. Repeat with the lower left edge. You now have a kite shape, long and pointed at the bottom. Keep the two edges meeting neatly in the middle with no gap and no overlap.
Tip
Fold the bottom point first, then smooth up toward the top. The edge stays straighter.
Flip the kite over so the folded flaps are underneath. Fold the remaining loose corner up so its point lands on the center line, and crease it firmly. Unfold that corner. It is a reference crease you will use later. Turn the paper back to the side you started on before going on.
Tip
If you lose track of which side is up, look for the two flaps from step 2. They face you now.
Fold the model in half by bringing the bottom point up to the top. Reinforce the fold. Keeping it folded, fold the right side corner in and crease it. Do the same with the left corner so the shape is even. When both are done, unfold the middle part again. The creases you made stay in the paper as guides.
Tip
Check both corners match before creasing. Uneven corners give a lopsided cat face.
Fold the right side over to the middle mark from the last step, making a new diagonal crease. Press it well and unfold. Repeat on the left side. These two diagonals are what let the body collapse neatly in a moment. The paper looks like a busy map of lines now. That is normal.
Tip
Take your time lining up with the mark. These creases set the width of the body.
Fold the top corner down and crease it. Then fold again, connecting the corners, so the top becomes a neat triangle flap. Crease it hard. Unfold only that last fold. This area becomes the cat's head, so the creases here decide where the ears will sit. Press each fold twice before you move on.
Tip
Keep the top fold straight across. A tilted fold gives one ear bigger than the other.
This step needs attention. Close the right side and the left side together, bringing both to the middle along the creases you already made, so the paper closes. Use the existing line to lift the first layer up. Use the other existing line on the right to close the bottom part. Flatten the remaining paper, then do the same on the left.
Tip
Do not force it. If the paper resists, a crease is in the wrong place. Open it and check.
Fold the small top corner of the back layer back to make a reference, then unfold it. Move the middle part over to the left. Bring the horizontal edge up to the diagonal above it to set a new crease, and undo it. Close the corner on that crease, fold the previous step again, and flatten. Repeat on the other side. Unfold the middle layer and the head is there.
Tip
This is the hardest step. Pause the video and match each fold before moving on.
Rotate the paper and fold the model in half along its length. The head sits at one end and the long point that becomes the tail sits at the other. Fold the larger side to make a diagonal crease, then unfold it. Open the paper, reinforce those lines, and fold that part up. It sets the angle of the tail.
Tip
A steep diagonal gives an upright tail. A shallow one gives a tail that trails behind.
Close the paper as before. Open the body a little and push each side over the middle part, half the paper to each side. Close the head over it. Fold the last corner using the mark you made earlier. Pinch the legs flat, shape the tail, and adjust anything loose. Stand your cat up. In black paper, add a white gel pen face for Halloween.
Tip
Curl the tail around a pencil for a springy hook at the end.
Keep going
How to Make a Paper Dinosaur - Easy Origami Triceratops
How to Fold an Origami Black Cat (Easy 3D Paper Cat)
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