Origami Butterflies

I've seen quite a few origami butterflies before, but these are by far, in my opinion, the most realistic looking. 

Start out with a square.

Fold it in half and crease. Then unfold

Fold one of the halves about 3/4 of the way to the crease

Do the same with the other half. Try to make them match as perfectly as you can.

Unfold.

Fold one of the corners in to the creases you  just made.

Do this to all four corners.

Then fold along the creases again.

Fold the entire thing in half.

Then fold up the corners to the center.

Unfold to this point.

Crease the existing diagonal lines so that they're all mountain folds (with a ridge going up)

...and the other side.

Start squeezing the sides together...

...until the entire thing squeezes flat.

It should look like this from the side.

Fold a little lip on the triangle. 

Take the top layer of one of the legs and start lifting it...

I have no idea why, but this image did not upload correctly. Please mentally rotate the above photo 90 degrees clockwise.

Anyway, keep lifting it until you can push it down flat like this.

Same to the other side.

You can already see the wing shape ^-^

Fold the entire thing in half.

And make a little crease near the center line on one of the wings.

Do the same to the other wing. Try to make these match perfectly.

This is what it should look like from the front. It made a little body ridge shape :)

Then flip it over to the back again...

And pull the panel outwards and make a little lip on the edge. This makes the entire butterfly pop a bit when you lay it flat.

You're done!

I can think of a ton of different ways to use these pretty little butterflies...

• gift wrapping
• party decorations
• indoor garden decor
• hair accessories
• mobiles and windchimes

Have fun with these :)