How to inflate and successfully make an origami lucky star

There are lots of videos about how to make the origami lucky star. But no one tells you it doesn't always work out.

For it to work, it must puff. Air magically gets into it, pushes it into shape, and holds it up.

So what can you do to help the lucky star puff? We'll show you three tips that will increase your chance of making successful lucky stars.

1. When you first tie the knot, shape the pentagon carefully, but don't press it totally flat. Make it a little bit 3D, like a very short 3D pentagon. This traps a tiny bit of air in it.

If you have the small end on top, fold it back or tuck it in, to close the pentagon.

The long end on the other side, pull it back to start rolling the paper. You can feel the pull.

2. Roll the paper tight. Simply follow where it naturally wants to go.

At the end of the paper, tuck it in. If you could tuck it underneath the last two layers, great! If not, tucking it under the last one layer is fine. It’s better to keep the model neat and tight than struggle and ruffle it. Now you've completed folding the pentagon.

Tighten up all the sides, particularly where the end is tucked in last. Try to make it neat, tight, and balanced.

3. Hold the pentagon on its edge as if holding a coin. While you pinch the middle of each side, say a prayer or the magic word, "puff, puff, little star". A star is born!

Note: It's easier to use narrower strips of paper. 1:16 works for us. It means if the narrow side is 1cm, the length is 16cm. 1:20 is even better. Commercial lucky star paper is even longer and narrower. We don't think this traditional lucky star is meant for folding big stars. By our experiment, success rates are lower if the paper is more than 2cm wide.

Using a paper cutter may help, too. When the strip has consistent width, it's easier to shape the pentagon. If you don't want to cut lots of long strips, consider ordering pre-cut lucky star paper. We'll show you an example below.

#origamiforbeginners #easyorigami #paperfolding #papercraft #origamiforadults #origamiforeveryone #creativehobby #pandemichobby #pandemicdistraction #easycrafts #origamiluckystars #origamistars #luckystars #paperstars #3dpaperstars

If you're in Canada, this is the link for our favorite Tuttle Publishing lucky star paper:

If you're in the United States, this is the link for Tuttle Publishing lucky star paper:

If you're elsewhere in the world, please search for the equivalent lucky star paper in your local Amazon. If you can't find it, consider using the U.S. link for global shipping.

(Disclosure: Product links are affiliate links. It costs you nothing to click through, but we could get paid a commission to support this channel.)

This video was first posted on our main channel, "love natural English channel", on December 18, 2020 and was transferred to this dedicated origami channel on January 8, 2021.

[jonathanwu]

this actually helped so much. for the past day ive been folding it down and didnt realize that i needed to make it a bit 3d. Thank you so much for these tips

[THEPINKPANTHER]

AM SOBBING! I finally did it. I said "puff, puff little star"....now I never will not say it. It's a magic spell lol

[beans-zypt]

I just gave up rn. I kept failing to get it to inflate it just squishes and folds together . If theres help for this it would help but for now I've quitted .

[tiawiththetea]

I've been struggling so much to get them to inflate cause I always end up crushing them when I do this is super helpful

[altega]

thank you so much for this!!! this is genuinely the only video ive seen that explains it so directly and visually. not being able to push the sides in without crushing it was driving me nuts. now i know what i was ACTUALLY doing wrong!! absolutely sending this to anyone who wants to learn too omg

[JayshreeBairagi]

Thank you for the tip it really helped

[vijayvcr]

I have been trying to find a video like this, it helped so much thank you🙏

[zozocutie]

This was not helpful at all so thanks for wasting my time🙂