Today is my friend Vic’s birthday. I found a great little present, but wanted to make sure that it was wrapped really well. He’s a graphic designer, and it just seemed tacky to hand him his present instead of taking the time to do something more artistic with the packaging. Luckily, this morning I picked up a few rolls of holiday wrapping paper, and one of them wasn’t too Christmas-y.

After the wrapping paper went on, though, something was still missing. As a final step, I made an origami Kusudama Flower to adorn the top of the box, using a tiny square pamphlet I received in the mail a week or so ago. This was a very easy project that turned out pretty nicely.

Making a Kusudama Flower is very easy, and there are several different techniques to use, each of which changes the final result just a little. I found step-by-step instructions at Easy Origami Kusudama Flower Instructions. You’ll need four or five square pieces of paper (one piece per “petal”) and either tape or glue to put the modules together. I used a glue stick, but I think the next time I’d either use permanent double sided tape, or else small dots of hot glue. These are pretty all the way around the shape, as you can see from the last photo – you could even put together some of these to string up on your Christmas tree, or to stick into a wreath!