Lay your A4 paper horizontally and fold the top left corner down to make it even with the bottom of your paper. You should now have a folded triangle shape with a rectangle shape on the right. Cut or rip the rectangle portion off. Unfold your paper, and you’ll have a square. If you are using origami paper, start with the colored side of the paper facing up.
Take the top corner and fold it down to meet the bottom corner. Then make a crease on the fold. Open the paper back up and repeat this fold with the other end of the paper, folding from left to right. Open the paper back up and rotate it 90 degrees. Now fold the top down on a horizontal fold and crease. Repeat folding one more time with a vertical book fold. [1] X Research source
Your paper should look like a right-angled triangle with the left crease and base forming a right angle.
The trick is to hold the bottom right layer down with one hand, while folding down and creasing the balloon flap with your other hand. The portion of paper you just folded should look like a diamond.
Pick up the top left flap of the triangle that’s sticking out. It should look like a shark fin when standing up with the points of your diamond on each side.
This is a variation of what’s called a balloon fold. [3] X Research source
There should be two flaps at the top and bottom of your paper, with two other folded flaps sandwiched in the middle.
Once you have creased the folds, then unfold fold the corners back.
Open the pocket up with your finger and fold, creasing the edges. Use your free hand to keep your paper in place. You should now have a kite shape.
Once both side of your paper have the same kite fold, grab the top flap that you haven’t squash folded on the left side of your paper. Pull it up and squash fold it, creating another kite fold. Once you have folded the left side over. Flip the paper over again and repeat.
If you don’t have two points on each side of your paper, fold the flaps over until they are evenly divided.
This is sort of like the squash fold from before. You should now have another kite shape on as the top layer. This one should be right side up.
You should end up with another right side up kite shape like you had on the other side of your paper. Repeat these folds on all the sides of your paper that have the triangle opening and upside down kite.
repeat this step on each side of your paper with the triangle flaps.
You should only see two smooth, flat sides now on the side of the paper facing you, and facing the table.
Once you have folded down the first two flat-sided flaps, fold your paper over to reveal the second two flat-sided flaps. Repeat the process. You may have to play with the already curled flaps when you fold the sides over to prevent these flaps from flattening.
