Roses are Red, Sofas are Beige

Today, i shall showcase a useless skill of mine: Origami Roses.

Step 1: Take the KFC catalogue that the friendly postman has stuffed into your mailbox and place it nicely on the table like so.

Step 2: Cut out a strip from the catalogue length-wise like so. Try not to use the pages with the discount coupons bcos you never know when you'll be eating at KFC. The width i'm used to is about 2 cm. You can make it wider, you'll just get a "taller" rose. Btw, you can use a longer strip to get a bigger rose, but that is the longest we can go with our KFC catalogue.

From now on i'll be referring to the Left and Right end of the strip so keep the orientation of your strip the same as in the picture, unless you're left-handed, in which case you might want to reverse the Ls and Rs. It's not a must though, some steps are just easier to perform with the master hand. (But the off-hand might be good once in a while too, just to spice things up.)

Step 2: Fold the Left end of the strip diagonally inwards and downwards like so.

Step 3: Now fold the Left end inwards like so. Notice it's not the same strip as just now. It's just a continuity error, so don't go tear yourself another strip.

The top view should look like this.

And the front view like this.

Step 4: Now roll the the Left end inwards like a popiah. if you don't know what's a popiah, you can roll it like a chee chiong fun, or a cigar, or a swedish "klämma" with surströmming, potatoes and red onion on a "tunnbröd" with butter besides a glass of milk.

Strange that after rolling it like a popiah it now looks like a Cornetto ice cream cone.

Step 5: Wrap the strip that is dangling out of your Cornetto cone around your Right thumb. Your thumb will serve as a "mould" for the petals from now on.

Step 6: Now fold the part that has been moulded round your thumb down slightly so that it stays in shape. The fingers on your left hand should move to help hold it down.

Step 7: Do the wrap round your thumb thing again on the next portion of strip that is now sticking out, rotating the cornetto towards you so that the petals you are folding go round the cornetto.

Step 8: Repeat the previous step again and again until you get something like this or you have run out of paper strip.

Side view looks like so, with a stalk sticking out. But i'm sure you would have noticed the stalk by now since it's just the remnants of the cornetto you've been holding with your left hand the whole time.

Step 9: Take your last bit of strip (about 2 cm or so), and wrap it tighly round the stalk so that it stays there, preferably permanently. You could tie it up with a piece of wire or staple it down, up to you.

There, finished.

From the top.

And the side.

Mini preview of what a bouquet would look like.

Cost of an entire bouquet of 999 roses? Zero dollars.

Perfect for upcoming birthdays/anniversaries/valentine's/Mother's day when you're short of cash. I've no idea what would happen if you gave those to a guy though. And now i feel so sorry for making fun of Tanaka Rie's photography. i threw up blood to come up with those out of focus pictures. Need more EXP.