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How to fold an origami stomping kaiju

Fold two corners in, snip them and swing the halves out as two legs and an arm, then fold it in half, crimp the head forward and reverse-fold the tail tip up. A lime strip folded small and snipped once opens into a row of crystal shards.

You need: A 20 cm teal square and a 12 x 5 cm lime strip; scissors, glue, black pen. Hard, 20 steps, about 30 minutes.

Steps

  1. Crease the middle. Start with the body: the teal square, white side up, turned like a diamond. Fold the left corner over onto the right corner.
  2. Open it. Unfold it again. You will snip along this crease soon.
  3. Corners in. Fold the bottom corner up on a slanted crease, from the lower left edge 6.6 cm from the left corner to the lower right edge 7 cm from the bottom corner. Fold the top corner down the same way.
  4. Snip the flaps. Cut each corner flap along the middle crease, from its tip to its fold, so each flap has a left and a right half.
  5. Legs and arm out. From the end of each snip, swing the left half of each flap out past its fold, slanting a little to the left: the two legs. Swing the top flap's right half out slanting to the right: the arm.
  6. Fold in half. Fold the top half down onto the bottom half, flaps inside. The long fold is the kaiju's back; the legs and arm poke out below.
  7. Head back. 5.5 cm from the right point, outside-reverse-fold the point back over the neck on a crease from the back.
  8. Head forward. Reverse-fold it out again from the same point, so the head bows forward and down.
  9. Curl the tail. 2 cm from the left point, outside-reverse-fold the tail tip up on a steep crease from the back, so it curls up over the tail.
  10. Stride. Swing the far leg back behind on a crease from the hip, so the two legs stride apart.
  11. Shards: new sheet. Set the body aside. Lay the 12 x 5 cm lime strip lime side up, long sides at the top and bottom.
  12. Shards: fold the left end. Fold the left end over on an upright crease 3 cm from the left edge.
  13. Shards: fold the right end. Fold the right end over on an upright crease 3.6 cm from the folded left edge.
  14. Shards: fold the left end again. Fold the left end over again on an upright crease 3 cm from the left edge of the folded strip.
  15. Shards: one slant snip. Cut one slant through all the layers, from the top right corner down to the left edge 4 mm above the bottom.
  16. Shards: open. Unfold the last fold.
  17. Shards: open again. Unfold the next fold.
  18. Shards: open out. Unfold the first fold. Four sharp crystal shards stand along the top, each a different height!
  19. Glue on the shards. Glue the strip's bottom edge behind the back, from the shoulders down towards the tail, so only the shards stand up.
  20. Stand it up. Turn it so the neck rises up to the right and the feet are on the table.

Roar!

Draw a fierce eye and a nostril, and a roaring mouth with two white fangs. Now stomp it across the table!

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