5 Pointed Origami Star Christmas Decorations

These 5 pointed origami stars are easy to fold and make beautiful Christmas decorations. You can make them from magazines, scrapbook papers or sheet music, whatever you happen to have lying around.

The following instruction is modified from

http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/5-pointed-origami-star.html

One of the 5 pointed origami stars is folded from scan of a dictionary page and the others are made from vintage style scrapbook papers

Credit for this design belongs to Shuzo Fujimoto, who created the design in the 70s.

Materials for 5 Pointed Origami Star

All you need is:

a square sheet of paper some scissors

Origami purists will frown upon me using scissors but hey, this is the 21st century not feudal Japan ;-)

The finished star Christmas ornaments will be about 60% of the size of the square you start with. So a 12" square will make a 7" star, or a 8.5" square will make a 5" star.

Making the 5 Pointed Origami Star

First up, you’ll need to cut a pentagon out of your square. You can either trace my pentagon template , or you can use an origami trick. I prefer using the origami trick because it works for any size of paper, and also it’s quicker. Here’s a 2 minute video showing you how it’s done:

Making the Pentagon (Photos)

Option 2: Origami Trick to Make Pentagon

Fold the square in half:

Fold up the bottom left corner

to the top, then unfold again.

Fold the top left corner to the bottom, then unfold again.

Fold the bottom right corner to the center of the X-shaped crease.

Fold the top layer in half.

Fold up edge AB to lie along edge AC.

Turn over the paper. Then fold in half along this line

Cut along the edge of the top layer

Unfold, and you have a perfect pentagon :-)

Folding the 5 Pointed Origami Star (Photos)

Step 1

Start with your paper nice-side-down. Fold the pentagon in half through each of its points and unfold again, so that you have a set of creases like this:

Fold up the bottom edge so that the corners meet the creases you just made:

Unfold again, then make the same fold for all the other sides of the pentagon, so that you have a set of creases like this:

Step 2

Fold in the left edge along one of the creases you just made. Then fold up the bottom edge, at the same time pulling the corner of the pentagon out to the left like this. Squash the fold flat.

Unfold completely. Rotate the pentagon 1/5th of a rotation so that the next side is at the bottom, then repeat the folds as in the image above. Do the same thing for all the rest of the sides of the pentagon. When you’ve finished you will have a new set of creases that look something like this:

Step 3

Starting with the pentagon completely unfolded, pinch all the corners together and squash them toward the center. With a bit of “massaging” the paper will collapse into a star shape.

Step 4

Turn over the star. Fold in the right edge to the center line, like this:

Working clockwise around the star, do the same thing for all the other arms:

Finished!