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Make Easy Origami Bookmarks

When it comes to origami and creativity, my friend Javier Caboblanco is a master! And recently, I couldn’t resist playing along with one of his creatively fun ideas.

For ‘World Book Day’ Javier designed an easy-to-make origami bookmark, invited friends to fold and illustrate it with a drawing of their own design, and then share it on his Facebook page.

When I folded his corner origami bookmark I noticed that one of the sides of this model was shaped like a boat and thought a boat would be a good image to use on this bookmark.

The other side is a perfect diamond. Considering what image might pair well with a boat, I envisioned a pirate, of course! And so the flip side of the origami bookmark turned into a pirate’s face. I colored the sails black, and the pirate found his perfect ship. Javier loved it!

Thinking of other possible combinations, I also developed paired images of a witch and her cauldron for those times when we’re into reading spooky books.

Here, with Javier’s permission, I would like to share his bookmark featured on one of my instructional origami videos.

I am sure there are many pairs of images that could be created for this origami bookmark, and you probably have some great ideas of your own. Would you like to give it a try?

If you would like to make an origami bookmark of the pirate and his ship, or the witch and her cauldron,  I’ve created some FREE printable templates which you can download, fold, and color as you please.  Download here:

  1. Pirate and Ship -bookmark PDF
  2. Witch and cauldron -bookmark PDF
  3. EXTRA Template!! Sheep and Wool Sweater -bookmark PDF
sheep-sweater2-bookmark

About Javier Caboblanco

Javier is an elementary teacher living in Toledo, Spain. He has been practicing origami for over twenty five years. His enthusiasm about his work is contagious and he is always coming up with creative activities for children.  He shares his work on his youtube channel Papiroflexia Escolar.

“What I most love about my work is to teach, to educate and to show that there is true magic in this world” says Javier.

All his years of teaching have convinced Javier that the practice of origami is beneficial to young people in many ways:

  • Origami helps children with fine motor skills (hand-eye coordination).
  • Origami encourages them to appreciate work well done.
  • Origami improves their abstract thought.
  • Origami teaches them a new symbolic language.
  • Origami is an excellent cross-curricular aid. Just about any subject can be taught using origami.

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18 thoughts on “Make Easy Origami Bookmarks”

  1. Hi Leyla Torres,
    I am Nitika. I am a fan of origami.It is like a magic for me and my younger brother. It is like you fold something and you get such a beautiful object.I wonder from where do you learn these foldings

    Reply
  2. Wow. I love these bookmarks. They are so cute. I read many books you know. I used to make stupid bookmarks. I did not like the bookmarks that I made. Today I saw this video and I was surprised to see such a nice bookmark. All this time I was thinking about making this kind of bookmark. It has really helped me and I love this bookmark of yours. Thank you for this wonderful bookmark.

    Ella

    Reply
      • I would love to share the link with you, but I am a young girl. I have secretly made these origami figures. I have not told my mom that I have been making these origami figures. I am sorry. But the bookmark is exactly like yours. Really. In this website, you had written something, ‘Origami is like magic’. Like magic, both our bookmarks were exactly the same. My elder sister and my mom loved this bookmark that I made. So, I am going to make bookmarks and share it with my friends.

        Ella

        Reply
  3. I found this right at the beginning of the school year; I can see us using it with a little red schoolhouse on one side and an apple on the other, or with a football on one side and our mascot on the other for football season, or a black cat on one side and the witch on the other (or a witch on a broom). Love it!! Thanks for making it available!!

    Reply
  4. I was thinking for other things to put in the bookmark and since it is near xmas I came up with the xmas tree and santa claus so I wanted to give you thanks!

    Reply
  5. Hello Leyla
    I wanted to thank you for sharing these patterns and let you know I am hoping to use them as part of an activity night for our Girl Guide unit, utilising parchment craft techniques to the finish.

    Reply
  6. Dear Leyla Torres,

    I would love to use your pirate and ship bookmark template as an extra summer reading activity for my teens. I used the video instructions to make a sample bookmark to show them. Do you have written instructions available?

    Reply
  7. Dear Leyla Torres,
    Thanks for this video. It is often wonderful to have a simple piece of origami to calm students and get them back on track, like a gleam of magic in the day.
    I found directions for making a pyramid shape on Javier’s site which I needed for a sculpture project! A fun digression today that helped me out.
    I sometimes assign your website offerings to my students, and we recently had a lovely time making many origami hearts to string together, and decorate our school. This is the kind of homework that they love,
    Best Regards,
    Rebecca

    Reply

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