Origami Heart Envelope Tutorial

These heart envelopes would make wonderful favor envelopes for a wedding or a romantic event. All you need is a square of paper which is colored on one side and some ribbon.

You can find some beautiful Origami Paper on Amazon which is normally double-sided - i.e. white on one side of the paper and colored on the other.

For items like this heart envelope which has a small number of folding steps, you can also use Scrapbook Paper which has the additional benefit that you can also use it for many other paper crafting projects like card-making because it is a little thicker. 

Choose a square piece of paper which is colored on one side and plain white on the other. I use 5x5 inch paper which makes cute mini envelopes which measure approx 3.5x2 inches once folded. 

For this project, you don't have to use the special thin, origami paper. And, certainly, if you want your finished envelopes to hold something heavier than paper (i.e. candy) then you might want to use slightly heavier paper. Start with the colored side facing up.

Fold the square paper diagonally in half both ways and then unfold the paper so that the colored side is facing upwards and you have 2 creases through your paper in an X shape.

You're now going to fold in all 4 corners of your square paper towards the middle of the paper.

Start with the top right corner, pull it down to the center crease point and fold. Then move to the bottom right corner, pull it towards the center crease point and fold.

Repeat this process with the bottom left corner and the top left corner until all corners have been folded in to the middle of your paper. 

Rotate your paper round so it looks like a square shape in front of you and not a diamond.

Unfold the top flap and then unfold the bottom flap ready for the next step.

Take hold of the bottom corner and pull it right up to the point shown in the photograph which is at the bottom mid-point of the triangular flap at the top.

Make sure the sides of the paper are level and then make your crease. 

Take hold of the top point on the bottom flap of paper and fold this down to the bottom of your paper envelope which you can see is starting to really take shape now.

If you folded the paper down evenly, and the point matched up with the mid crease at the bottom of your envelope, you'll have formed a new triangle. This will make the bottom of your heart. 

Take hold of the top corner and fold it right down to the bottom of your envelope, lining the point up with the mid crease in the paper.

Once you have everything neatly lined up, make the new fold.

This is harder to explain but you now want to take hold of the same layer of paper you just folded and bend it back up so the tip goes over the top of the envelope and you make a diamond shape with the colored parts of the paper.

The bottom of the top colored triangle should rest against the other folded triangle and not overlap. Take your time to match these up nicely.

To make the heart shape on your envelope, you just need to pull the top of the colored triangle down to the bottom of that top flap which makes the top of your envelope.

I like to glue down the bottom sides of the origami heart envelope and also glue down the heart shape which makes the finished project look really neat. You'll need to glue the envelope if you intend it to hold anything other than a love note.