3 days before Christmas, this cute reindeer appeared while I was playing with a long strip of paper. You are right, it does not look like the other reindeers, it's a special magical reindeer. They can fly even though they don't have wings, and Santa Claus uses them for his sleigh.
This reindeer has joined front legs and joined back legs, but it can stand relatively easily.
To fold this reindeer, you will need a long strip of paper. The exact size does not matter, but the length should be about 10 times the width.
For most folds, there isn't an exact place where you need to fold. So don't worry, just fold, and you will get a different reindeer every time!
Update - December 6th 2017: there is now a new video tutorial with a slightly improved version. Try the origami reindeer in 2 colors, it's even more beautiful!
To make Strip Reindeer in origami, please follow the instructions from this video on YouTube:
Here are the step-by-step instructions to fold Strip Reindeer (photo diagram and/or video).
1. Start with a long strip of paper. You can use A4 or letter copy paper, and cut a long stripe with a width of 2 to 3 cm (about 1 inch).
2. Fold the strip in two, along its length.
3. Make an inside reverse fold for the back legs.
4. Make an outside fold for the front legs.
5. Make a simple valley fold so that the front legs are as tall as the back legs. Your girafe is almost ready! :-)
6. Unfold the last fold at the bottom of the front legs, open the neck and fold back the bottom fold of the front legs.
7. Make a valley fold on the neck so that the bottom of the head is at the same level as the bottom of the body.
8. Put the reindeer face down, and bring the two sides of the neck to the middle axis of the neck.
9. Roll the neck. You can use a pen to start the roll, and then once you have rolled the neck once, you can make the roll more tight. Make a slight fold towards the front at the bottom of the roll.
10. Free the bottom of the head, and fold back the two sides of the head to the middle. You can experiment with different ways to shape the head, and possibly make a few more folds at the bottom of the head to make it thinner.
11. Fold the bottom of the back of the front legs inside to make them thinner.
12. Similarly, fold the bottom of the back of the back back legs to thin them.
13. Your reindeer is complete, and you can make it stand.
14. This strip reindeer is a very quick model to fold, so you can fold many reindeers, and all of the reindeers in your herd will be different.
I hope you will like this reindeer! It's my first strip origami model, and I think I will make a lot of others as it is a lot of fun to create and fold.
From this reindeer base, it's very easy to make a tall girafe and probably a lot of other animals too!
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy Folding! :-)
If you fold this Strip Reindeer, please send me pictures of your paper Strip Reindeer so that I can show them here.
Origami Smiling Santa carrying a baby reindeer by Natalia Beccerra Cano
Origami Santa Claus, sleigh and reindeers
Have you tried this this Strip Reindeer origami model? How did it turn out? Please tell me, and send me a picture of your model so that I can add it on this page!
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Origami is the art of folding paper to create animals, plants, objects and geometric forms.
Origami models with easy to follow step-by-step instructions in video and photos.
Diagrams to fold origami models can be difficult to interpret sometimes. For each model we show a photo of each step so that you can easily fold all models. Each origami model also has a video that shows how to fold it.
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