Introduction: Paper Fortune Teller

Materials: 1 piece of standard printer paper

Pen or other writing utensil

Scissors

Colored pencils (optional)

Step 1:

Holding the paper in front of you vertically, take the top left corner and fold it diagonally, aligning the top of the paper with the right side until the upper right corner becomes a perfect point. Your paper should look like a right triangle with a long rectangle underneath.

Step 2:

Fold the long rectangle down over your triangle. Using your scissors, cut along the crease made by the fold until you have completely cut off the rectangle. Unfold the triangle that is left over, and you should have a square piece of paper.

Step 3:

Fold your square in half horizontally and vertically. Unfold your piece of paper completely until you once again have a square. Your square should look like there is a plus sign separating your paper into four smaller squares. Fold the bottom left corner of your square towards the middle of the plus sign until the point of the corner is touching the center of the plus sign. Repeat with the remaining three corners. You should now have a smaller square made up of four triangles.

Step 4:

Flip your square over. The back of the square should look like there is an X separating the square into four triangles. Fold the upper left corner of your square towards the middle of the X until the point of the corner is touching the center of the X. Repeat with the remaining three corners. Once again, you should have a smaller square made up of four triangles.

Step 5:

Each of your four triangles should look like they are bisected down the middle by a previous fold. This will give the appearance of there being eight smaller triangles in total. Label each of the smaller triangles as 1-8. On the inside of the smaller triangles, under each number, write a different fortune of your choice. Here I chose to make my fortune teller like an eight ball, where the fortunes can tell you such things as yes, no, maybe, ask again later, etc.

Step 6:

Fold the top two corners of your square down until they meet the bottom two corners. You should have a rectangle made up of two squares. Fold the rectangle in half until you have one square. Unfold until you once again have a rectangle, and then fold it in half again in the opposite direction.

Step 7:

On the front and back of your rectangle, either label each square a different color, or color them in using your colored pencils. Try to use colors that have a different number of letters when you spell it out.

Step 8:

Position your rectangle so that it is open at the top. The squares making up the rectangle should open up like flaps where the meet in the middle of the rectangle. Insert the thumb and index finger of the right hand into the flaps on the right, and do the same on the left side. Push up in the flaps until the thumb and index finger of the right hand are touching the thumb and index finger of the left hand. This should cause your rectangle to form a three-dimensional flower-like shape that can open vertically and horizontally.

Step 9:

Each petal of your flower fortune teller should be a different color. Pick one of the colors. Count out how many letters are in that color, and alternate opening the flower vertically and horizontally. The number of times you open the flower should equal the number of letters in the chosen color. Once you have alternated opening your fortune teller the correct number of times, hold the fortune teller open. This will reveal the numbers you wrote previously.

Step 10:

Pick one of the numbers showing, and alternate opening the fortune teller vertically and horizontally an equal number of times to the number you chose. Once again, you will see numbers on the inside. Pick another number and lift up that flap. Whatever is underneath the number you chose is your fortune.