Turn Your Favorite Coloring Page into a Pretty Origami Crane

Are you drowning in stacks of finished coloring pages? Consider turning some of your favorites into pretty origami cranes. Cranes are well recognized as symbols of peace and love, making them the perfect vehicle for displaying your artwork.

To begin, you’ll need to cut your finished coloring sheet into a square. The exact size doesn’t matter, but larger squares are generally easier to work with for a novice paper folder. Personally, I like to work with 6 inch or 8 inch squares.

Once you’ve prepared your paper, here’s what you need to do next:

Step 1: Create a bird bird base. A bird base is a square base plus two petal folds.

1A: To make a square base, fold the paper in half diagonally so it forms a triangle. Unfold. Flip the paper over. Fold in half horizontally. Unfold. Fold in half vertically. Unfold. Notice that the diagonal crease appears to rise up from the page, while the vertical and horizontal creases seems to sink backwards. The diagonal creases are mountain folds. The vertical and horizontal creases are valley folds. Flip your paper over and turn it toward you in a diamond shape. Flatten the paper to complete your square base, using the creases made in the previous steps as a guide. Your square base is now complete.

1B: To turn your square base into a bird base, fold the top left and right triangle flaps of your square base in to meet the center crease. Unfold. Fold the top of the model down so you have a horizontal crease connecting the creases you’ve just made. Unfold. Open the upper flap, pressing the sides of the model inwards at the same time. Flatten the paper into a tall, thin diamond shape. Flip the paper over and repeat on the reverse side to finish the bird base form. (The photo for Step 1 in the diagram below shows your completed bird base.)

Step 2: Fold top left and right sides into the center crease. Turn your origami crane over, then repeat this step on the other side.

Step 3: Fold both “legs” of your origami crane up and out.

Step 4: Unfold the crane’s legs, then inside reverse fold the creases by opening the model a bit and bringing the top point down so the mountain folded edge becomes a valley folded edge. Fold the wings down to complete your origami crane.