First wedding anniversary paper/origami gift ideas?

November 22, 2009 7:41 PM

My husband and I will be celebrating our first (paper) wedding anniversary this Friday. We're really short on funds, so I'm thinking of folding him something with origami and writing our vows or a poem on the unfolded paper... Any suggestions on what to fold?

I'm toying with the idea of using a rose pattern but was wondering if anyone knew of any symbolism for first anniversaries/marriage/love and had origami patterns to match.

It's been a while since I've done anything with origami, a few years ago I started making paper roses, but I have no idea what the pattern was (I did find it online and had it as a PDF, but it's long since gone). I don't think it was the Kawasaki pattern, but was something extremely similar and possibly a touch easier. For those who've folded roses before, do you have a favorite pattern or one that you would recommend? I have plenty of time (until, Friday) and patience...

Or if anyone has any other inexpensive/last minute paper gift ideas, aside from writing him a nice poem/letter/story (I've done those things many times before, and also for our wedding, so I'm looking for something new) I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your suggestions :)

I know I've left this a bit late, I'd originally planned to get our vows letter-pressed and framed, but we've had a lot on our plates these last few weeks, and our anniversary was the last thing on our minds..

posted by saileyn to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (10 answers total)

This is much simpler than Kawasaki, a bunch can look quite beautiful. I'm shit at origami, and used it similar circumstances with not too much difficulty and great effect.
posted by smoke at 8:02 PM on November 22, 2009

PS, other varieties here.
posted by smoke at 8:03 PM on November 22, 2009

I did an origami gift over the summer, and while I don't have a particular patten to recommend, I found it verrrrry helpful to find patterns that I liked on Youtube, and then watch the video as I did it. There are hundreds of origami videos on there.
posted by Ashley801 at 8:11 PM on November 22, 2009

I think the origami is a lovely idea. My boyfriend made me a flock of butterflies once (flock? swarm? whatever) which was really nice. They were letters, written on plain paper but each sheet had different coloured writing which looked really good. Google seems to have several instruction pages and styles.

The rose is also nice but it's fairly tightly folded so the writing may not be readily seen, whereas something with more flat surfaces will give away that you want him to also unfold and read what's on there.
posted by shelleycat at 8:32 PM on November 22, 2009

I don't have specific recommendations, but there are many nice origami designs here. The interface is a bit clunky; probably the easiest thing is to search by difficulty level.
posted by number9dream at 10:16 PM on November 22, 2009

I sent my sister-in-law a breakfast cook book and a tray so that she and her husband could take turns cooking each other breakfast in bed. Maybe you could give him a tray with a promise of breakfast in bed for the next few Sundays.
posted by TooFewShoes at 10:23 PM on November 22, 2009

What about a map? Maybe of someplace you want to visit?
posted by Sutekh at 10:32 PM on November 22, 2009

Might you have a left-over wedding invitation or program or some-such?
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:44 AM on November 23, 2009

If you have time, might I suggest a thousand paper cranes?
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:13 PM on November 23, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you everyone for your help! I gave up on the idea of origami, as looking around our little house, I realised we'd have no-where to put it!

After a lot of searching I came across a craft technique called paper quilling, which according to Wikipedia: "involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. The paper is wound around a quill to create a basic coil shape."

Inspired by the fantastic work of artist Yulia Brodskaya, (particularly her 'Heart' artwork) I quilled the letters to the word love and stuck them in a shadowbox photoframe.

It looked fantastic and was quite easy to do, all I needed was some strips of paper (cut using our shredder), PVA glue and a toothpick to roll the paper around.
posted by saileyn at 6:23 PM on December 2, 2009 [1 favorite]