Toilet Paper Origami Crane

Guys, I'm so excited. My very dear friend Chloe will be landing at the Austin Bergstrom International airport in a few short hours.And, yes, before you ask, her name is Chloe, same as mine. And both our middle names start with the same letter so when we're together we bust out the full middle names. Chloe Rose (her) and Chloe Renee (myself). It's pretty fun. We've been friends for basically ever. Our Moms met in a moms support group when we were both a few months old (because, you know, we were quite a hassle) and we've been really close ever since. Even though we live a few states away, when we are together again it's like no time has passed at all. We are those kinds of friends. I'm so excited abut her visit because we are going to have so much fun together crafting and baking and cooking and going on adventures. I can barely contain myself, y'all.
Anyhoo, I decided to try and get all fancy with some toilet paper creations. Paper cranes came to mind and I just had to try it. I've made cranes out of paper towles, napkins, tissues, tissue paper, felt, and a gum wrapper. Why not try toilet paper? So that, friends, is what I did.

If you'd like to your hand at this, I'd suggest that you have a firm grasp on the process of folding a crane, or you use the tutorial below and practice on origami paper a bit before trying out TP. The video was created by Marielle, the artsy-amazing person behind my favorite blog, Magical Daydream. It's the best tutorial I've found, and the one I used to learn.

Now that you're an expert, grab one piece of your favorite toilet paper and square it off by folding one corner diagonally and cutting off the excess with a sharp pair of scissors. 

Now fold as you normally would. I have a few pointers for you though.

• Try to crease the edges well, but know that at best you'll leave a very faint mark. Keep your eyes on it so you'll know what to do. If you're feeling very courageous just eyeball it.
• Be extra careful when you turn or rotate the bird because all the things you folded previously will fall out if you're not holding the folds shut.
• When folding the wings up, be sure to really pop out the corners and align the edges well because the TP is bulkier than paper and the discrepancy will be noticed.
• When grabbing an edge to fold it be sure to have all the layers of TP if you're using 2 or 3 ply.
• Be patient!

When you're all done you can either place it on top of the roll of toilet paper (it balances surprisingly well, especially on a fuller roll of TP) or tape it if you deem it necessary.

Ta-Da!

Also:

I love having guests because it's a wonderful reason to buy flowers and place them all over the house. 

Well, we are off to the airport to receive Chloe Rose, so I'll leave this here. Prepare for the onslaught of crafty postings from myself and my BFF. Consider yourself waned :)