How to Fold a Paper Rose

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Roses are mid-level origami art paper folding cards through which you will get a beautiful decorative flower. It all started with a simple square paper template. This paper pattern will be carefully folded into a spiral. The four petals twisted tightly around the square base and the rose was born! Once you’ve made your first flower, you’ll want to make a few more to get the whole bunch of pretty confetti.

Table of Contents

Create basic folds

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Use a square sheet of paper. As with most origami art, the rose begins with a simple square. Choose any color that you like, as long as there is a difference in color or texture between the two sides. ^{[1] X Research Source} With glossy paper, the flower will look the most realistic.

Fold the paper in half (when starting, keep the colored side face down). Fold the bottom edge up, folding it so that it coincides with the top edge of the paper. Use your fingers to create folds, from the center to the sides.

In the origami world, this is called “valley folding” because it will form a small valley on the paper. Almost every origami paper begins with a valley fold or a reverse fold – a mountain fold, creating a mountain range on the paper. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Open the paper again. Open it up again, you will see a crease created in the middle of the paper, forming a horizontal line.

Place the paper so that the folds are horizontal, the red side facing down.

Double the bottom half. Fold the bottom edge up so that it matches the horizontal crease in the center of the paper. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Use your fingers to create a new crease.

Double the top half. Fold the top edge down so that it coincides with the center fold. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Use your fingers to create a new crease.

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Open the paper again. Now there will be three horizontal folds on the paper, dividing it into four equal parts. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Fold the bottom half in half. Make sure that the paper is being placed so that all three folds created in the previous step are horizontal and the red side is facing down. Fold the bottom edge (the one closest to you) up so that it coincides with the top horizontal line. It’s the horizontal line that’s ¼ the height of the top edge of the paper. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

Use your fingers or a paper folding tool to create new folds.
When folded correctly, the new fold will split the paper created by the middle and bottom folds.
You can open the paper again to see and make sure you did it right. However, don’t forget to fold it back up before starting with the next step.

Fold the bottom right corner in. Grab the bottom right corner (created by the bottom crease) and fold it diagonally at a 45-degree angle. This corner should be folded up so that the small right edge of the paper aligns with the nearest fold. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

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Open the paper again. You will probably see four horizontal folds. Of the original four sections, the second from the bottom will be bisected by one of these horizontal folds. At the same time, in that part there are two small diagonal lines on the right. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

Of these two diagonals, one will go up at a 45-degree angle from the middle crease and the other will go down also at a 45-degree angle.

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Mark the folds. Use a pen or pencil to trace along your crease. ^{[9] X Research Source}

Rotate the paper 180 degrees and repeat. Rotate the paper so that the top becomes the bottom. Then, repeat steps 7 to 10. ^{[10] X Research Sources}

Rotate the paper 90 degrees and repeat. Rotate the paper 90 degrees and repeat from step 2 to step 10. ^{[11] X Research Source}

Rotate the paper 180 degrees and repeat. Rotate the paper another ½ circle and repeat from step 7 to step 10. ^{[12] X Research Source}

Create diagonal creases

Fold the paper in half diagonally. With the red face still facing down, raise the bottom right corner to match the top left corner. Use your fingers to create folds. ^{[13] X Research Source}

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Reopen the paper. Open the paper to see the new diagonal crease. ^{[14] X Research Source}

Fold the paper in half diagonally opposite. Rotate the paper 90 degrees and repeat the two steps above. ^{[15] X Research Source}

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Open the paper again. You should see two diagonal folds forming an “X” on the paper. ^{[16] X Research Source}

Fold the upper left corner. At each corner, you will probably see a small square divided by a single diagonal. Take the upper left corner and fold inward, creating a line perpendicular to the original diagonal. ^{[17] X Research Source}

The corner of the paper should be aligned with the bottom right corner of the small square.

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Open the paper again and mark any newly created folds. You should now see a small “X” in the upper left corner. Draw a line along the new fold. ^{[18] X Research Sources}

Fold the bottom right corner onto the new line. Bring the bottom right corner up so that its top touches the new line drawn in the previous step. ^{[19] X Research Source}

A new fold parallel to one of the lines that make up the large “X”, especially the one running from the bottom left to the top right corner, will be formed.

Open the paper again and mark it. Open the paper again and draw a line along the new diagonal. ^{[20] X Research Source}

Rotate the paper and repeat. Rotate the paper 180 degrees and repeat the four steps above. ^{[21] X Research Source}

At this point, you should be able to see three parallel folds running from the bottom left corner to the top right corner.

Rotate and repeat. Now rotate the paper 90 degrees and repeat from step 5 to step 9 (of part 2). ^{[22] X Research Source}

When you’re done, you’ll have three parallel lines running from the bottom left corner to the top right corner, and three lines running from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.

Create texture

Fold the four corners inward. Similar to step 5, part 2, fold in all four corners of the paper. No new folds should be created when doing so. ^{[23] X Research Sources}

The result will be an octagon.

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Turn the paper upside down. At this point, the red face will be on top. ^{[24] X Research Source}

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Find the small triangle. Along the bottom edge of the paper you’ll find a small triangle made up of folds. The center fold line runs from the top, making this triangle look like two smaller triangles that share a vertical side.

If you can’t find it, look for the triangle in the right corner. This triangle is located where the lower (horizontal) edge of the paper meets its lower right (diagonal) edge.
If the little triangle is not there, double check to make sure you followed step 8, part 1 correctly.

Fold back inward at the bottom. If you don’t know what it is or how to do it, follow the instructions below: ^{[25] X Research Sources}

Gently fold the midline of the triangle found on the closest step inward, creating a small valley fold.
At the same time, fold the two diagonal sides of the triangle outward, creating a small mountain fold.
The small triangle should make a “V” notch on the edge of the paper.
Next, create more mountain folds along the fold that runs from the top of the triangle.
This is called inward folding. ^{[26] X Research Sources}

Make another inward fold line. In what used to be the lower left corner, you need to make a slightly different shaped V-notch. ^{[27] X Research Source}

Just to the right of the little triangle (which you just folded back inwards) is another fold. It runs parallel to the right side of the small triangle and perpendicular to the side of the octagon.
Gently push inward along this crease to form a valley fold.
Next, same as before, gently push the edge of the triangle outward, creating small mountain ranges.
Finally, create another valley fold, pushing the crease parallel to the horizontal edge of the nearest new “V” inward. ^{[28] X Research Sources}

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This final fold will run through the center of the paper, forming the side of a small centered square marked on the other side.

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Rotate and repeat. Rotate the paper 90 degrees, repeat steps 3 and 4. Do the same for the other 3 sides. ^{[29] X Research Source}^{[30] X Research Source}

Create Petals

Fold in a valley shape on each petal edge. Now that the basic texture of the flower has been established, it’s time to work with the petals. In the first step, you will have to add a valley fold at the outer edge of each wing. ^{[31] X Research Source}

Looking at the rose from above, you will see four long valleys radiating from the central square. To the right of each valley is a wide flat surface. Grab the edge of this flat surface and fold inward.
In particular, grab the three edges of the outer edge and fold it so that a quadrilateral is formed. ^{[32] X Research Source}

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Fold the corners in. Viewed from the side, you can now see four triangle-like shapes with one vertex cut off (along where it just folded in the form of a valley). Protruding from the bottom is a small triangle with the white side of the paper. Fold in the right corner of each of these “cut off” triangles. ^{[33] X Research Sources}

Draw an imaginary line straight from the lower vertex of the “white” triangle and fold the valley shape along it. ^{[34] X Research Source}

Unfold the corner and fold it back. Open the valley folds you just made with the vertices. Next, fold it back so that the vertices are hidden inside the rose. ^{[35] X Research Source}

If done correctly, the white triangle will disappear.

Make small valley folds. At this point, the “cut off” triangle will look like it’s cut off at two vertices: one on the left and a tiny one on the right, created by the reverse fold. Now fold the small “cut off” side at a 45-degree angle from the bottom of the “cut off” triangle (edge of the paper). ^{[36] X Research Source}

Unfold and fold back. Unfold the valley fold you just made and reverse fold along those same lines, folding the little triangle created in the previous step into the rose at all four vertices. ^{[37] X Research Source}

Fold the edge down. The “headless” triangle will now have an inverted fold at each “cut off” edge. They allow you to create small, horizontal valley folds with the bottom of each shape, pulling the resulting flap outward. Do the same with all four petals. ^{[38] X Research Source}

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Create legs. Stitch the petals together to create “legs”. For each set of wings, pull them together so that the right wing is directly behind the left wing. Secure by pressing down the folds. The result is a set of legs that are relatively stable and show four corners. ^{[39] X Research Sources}

If done correctly, you will only see some or no white on the base of the flower when viewed from the side.

Turn over and fold legs inward. Turn the rose upside down, facing the white inside. Next, fold each leg of the triangle down. ^{[40] X Research Source}

Thread one end to the other so that the rose is sealed. ^{[41] X Research Source}

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Turn the flower upside down. The square you are looking down on will become the top of the rose. ^{[42] X Research Source}

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Push the corners in. The upper square would have been folded into four corners. Use your fingers to gently push each corner in, leaving the mountains to create an “X” shape. ^{[43] X Research Source}

Turn. Place your finger in each corner around the “X” and rotate slightly. ^{[44] X Research Source}

Thanks to that, instead of the hard lines of the letter “X”, the upper part of the rose will have more swirl and realism.

Create twist. Grab the center point of what used to be the “X” with tweezers and continue to rotate slowly but surely. Be careful not to tear the paper. ^{[45] X Research Source}

When you do, the center of the rose will sink in, creating a more realistic feel.
You may have to practice a few times.

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Curl the petals. Use two fingers to hold each petal at the top and roll to the center. Release. Thanks to that, creating beautiful curved petals. ^{[46] X Research Source}

Add flower stalks (optional)

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Use another sheet of paper. If you want to add an origami flower stalk, start with a new sheet of paper, preferably blue.

Turn the colored side down and fold the paper in half. Fold the paper in a valley shape, corner to corner, forming two triangles, then unfold. ^{[47] X Research Sources}

Fold the edges in. Fold two more lines in the form of a valley, from the left and right corners to the center line, forming a kite shape. ^{[48]X Research Source}

Repeat. Fold the corner inward again to the center line. Then do it again. At this point, you will have a very pointed kite. ^{[49] X Research Source}

Turn over and fold up. Turn the flower stalk upside down so that all the edges of the paper are hidden. Next, fold the bottom vertex up to meet the top vertex. ^{[50] X Research Source}

Double. Now, fold the flower stalk in half along the vertical axis. ^{[51] X Research Source}

Fold the edges down and then reverse. Fold the outer part (the part that will become the leaf) of the paper outward, separating it from the inner part (the flower stalk), creating two diagonal folds. Next, fold the leaves upside down and separate from the flower stalk. From there, create the center fold line. ^{[52] X Research Source}

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Attach the stem to the flower. Insert the pointed end of the stem into the small hole located below the flower, where the “legs” meet.

Advice

Be precise and steady when folding. Carefully align the edges before creating the crease.
You can also make a stalk out of a cannula or blue metal wire if you don’t want to make it out of paper.
While not necessary, colored paper will make the rose look great, and if the two sides are different colors, it will be easier to track progress now.

Steps