Paper Folding How To: Ducks Bobbing on a Lake

Paper folding, or origami, is a creative and easy-to-learn craft that's great fun for all ages and abilities. So make the most of that rainy winter's day and try one of our easy paper folding projects: ducks bobbing on a lake. You could even put on your wellingtons and take these ducks out for a swim!

Duck tutorial taken fromPaper Folding with Children: Fun and Easy Origami Projects, by Alice Hörnecke. Available to order now from florisbooks.co.uk, Amazon UK and US, and all good craft book stockists.

Step 1: Symbols

You will see the first symbol (a blue arrow) quite often. It means to fold the paper in the direction of the arrow.

The second symbol (a green curly arrow) simply means turn your paper figure over.

Step 2: Types of Fold

As your paper folding skills develop, you'll find that origami makes use of lots of different types of folds. However, our bobbing ducks are a fairly simple project so you only need to know about 2 types of fold.

The yellow sheet of paper above shows a valley fold, where you fold the sheet of paper down the middle as if you’re closing a book.

The blue sheet of paper above shows a mountain fold, where you fold the edges of the paper in the opposite direction.

Step 3: Materials

To make your duck, you'll need:

Yellow origami paper, 15 x 15 cm (6 x 6 in), or 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 in)
If you want your duck to really float, you could use yellow waterproof paper
Coloured pencils
Googly eyes
Glue

Step 4:

Place the paper coloured side down. Fold the paper in half diagonally and unfold again.

Step 5:

Fold the top and bottom corners inwards to meet along the centre line. This will form a sideways kite shape. Flip the figure over and fold the long left corner over to the right corner, then fold the point back on itself to the folded edge, as shown.

Step 6:

Mountain fold the figure in half lengthways along the original crease.

Step 7:

Holding the main body firmly below the tail, pull the neck upwards and flatten. Then pull the beak outwards to the left and flatten.

Step 8:

To make a standing base, fold both bottom corners inwards to meet each other.

Step 9:

For some added detail, colour in the beak and glue on some googly eyes. Now it can swim away!

Step 10: Where to Buy

Duck tutorial taken from Paper Folding with Children: Fun and Easy Origami Projects, by Alice Hörnecke. Available to order now from florisbooks.co.uk, Amazon UK and US, and all good craft book stockists.