Origami Kami Fusen Tutorial

In this tutorial I'm going to teach you how to make a Kami Fusen. This is another iconic piece that is almost as well known as the crane. Kami Fusen, paper balloon, and water balloon are some of the names for this piece of origami. While this little balloon won't float its a fun toy to play with (similar to a hacky sack) and can be a very pretty decoration.

Folds and base types:

-Mountain fold

-Valley fold

-Water bomb base

What you will need:

-A sheet of paper (any size will do but bigger sheets will be easier to use. A rectangular piece of paper is fine too I explain how to turn it into a square in the tutorial.)

*Optional (You don't need these to fold these pieces)

-A bone folder

-Paper cutter

(Normal white line = Valley Fold)

(Dotted white line = Mountain Fold)

(Normal black line = Pre made fold)

(Curved arrow line = Fold from start to end)

If your paper isn't already in a square shape, turn it into a square. I have an explanation on how to do that on my Paper crane tutorial.

For this piece you need to make two diagonal crease, one vertical crease, and one horizontal crease. The two diagonal creases and the vertical creases should be valley folds and the horizontal should be a mountain fold.

This will make it easier to collapse the paper into the water bomb base.

Now we need to collapse it. If you decided to fold the paper in the way I've shown in the picture above you should notice that it already kind of partially folding itself into the water bomb base.

Turn the paper so that the mountain fold is horizontal to you and take those two sides and fold them down onto the triangle below. (If the collapsing process doesn't make much sense watch the video at the bottom of the tutorial. It will help show how to do it.)

If done correctly it should look like this,

Now we need to take the two bottom corners, bring them to the top corner, and fold them down. Make sure that the edge matches up with the center crease.

If done correctly it should look like this,

Repeat on both sides

Now we need to secure the flaps to the kami fusen. To do this we will have to take the right and left corners of the flaps and fold them to the center crease.

If you do it correctly it should look like this,

Repeat this step on both sides.

Now we need to open up the pocket on the inside of the flap we just created. Just find the gap and open it up a little bit with your finger. Make sure to not undo the fold. This will help us secure the balloon and make sure that it won't unravel itself when we blow it up.

Do this step on all four flaps.

It should look like this.

Now you are basically done folding but you still have to blow the balloon up. To blow it up find the hole at the bottom of the balloon and blow into it.

Sometimes the balloon wont completely blow up. To fix this I like to stretch the sides to open the bottom hole and to loosen the paper a little bit. But not to the point to where I rip or undo the folds.

Once you blow it up it should look like this,

This can become a fun replacement for a bean bag and can be deflated and folded up for later! It's a great and simple piece for beginners and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you didn't understand anything please check the video which will show you a quick walkthrough of me making it.