Origami Book Bookmark

My daughter requested a bookmark in the shape of a book! I spent some time trying to make an interesting design, and I really liked how it turned out so decided to post it here.

Any rectangular sheet of paper will work here. I used the cutoff from piece of US printer paper after making a square (2.5" x 8.5"), but anything in that ballpark will work.

Note for the rest of the instructions: In addition to describing each step I've drawn in the fold lines on the images as well. Red lines are valley folds, blue lines are mountain folds.

Start with your paper horizontal and the side you want on the outside of the book facing down.

Valley fold the top of the paper down to the bottom (crease on top).

Valley fold the left bit over. This fold determines how wide your book is, so make it book-sized.

Flip the model horizontally. The folded horizontal crease should still be on the top, and the piece you folded over in the last step should be on the right side, underneath the model.

Valley fold the long edge back, in the same place the edge underneath is.

The final image is a view from the side (I opened the model up a bit so you can see the folds). Those first two folds are your book, the rest of the paper will be used to make the stem.

In this step you'll be making some creases that you'll later need to collapse in a different way. Crease each fold well, using your fingernail.

Take the long edge and fold it diagonally up. Crease well, and then unfold.

Take the long edge and fold it diagonally down. Crease well, and leave it there for the next step.

With the long edge still folded down diagonally, fold it in half vertically. Be sure to crease this fold well, getting it to show up on all the layers of paper.

Finally, unfold everything back to the place you started, with the white side of the paper face down, and the "book" folds on the left.

You're now going to use all of the folds from the previous steps to collapse the stem inside the book. Some of the folds you made will need to be reversed for this (turned from valley to mountain or vice-versa).

The first image shows all of the mountain/valley folds in the collapse. I find it easiest to set some of these folds first, particularly the long horizontal mountain fold on the top, which will need to be reversed.

The next 2 images show the collapse in progress. You can see the mountain/valley lines translated into actual mountain/valley folds here.

Once the model is fully collapsed, lay it flat and fold the bottom flap up. The origami part of this project is complete!

Choose a favorite book cover / first line, and decorate your new bookmark!

You may find it easier to unfold the model flat to write/draw on the appropriate sections -- don't worry, with the folds all set in the correct directions now it will easily re-collapse back together.

Enjoy! If you do end up making it post a photo of the book you chose!