Morning glories are the flowers that open early and close again by the afternoon, which makes them a perfect subject for paper: yours will stay wide open all summer. What makes this version fun is a small trick at the very start — you glue a half sheet of green paper to the back of the flower square, so the leaves grow out of the same piece of paper as the bloom and no separate gluing is needed later. Fold step 6 the other way round and the flower and leaves simply swap places, so you get two different looks from one sequence. Blue and purple paper feels most like the real thing, but any bright colour looks cheerful. These are simple enough for small hands, so fold a pile of them, glue them onto a big sheet and let someone draw in the vines.

How to fold

STEP 1

Prepare two sheets of paper: one for the flower and one for the leaves. Cut the sheet for the leaves down to half the size.

STEP 2

Glue the leaf paper onto the white side of the flower paper to hold it in place. You do not need to glue the whole surface.

STEP 3

Make vertical and horizontal creases across the square, then open it out again.

STEP 4

Fold both sides in toward the centre.

STEP 5

Fold the white part diagonally along the dotted line.

STEP 6

Fold the paper in half vertically.

STEP 7

Fold the top and bottom diagonally outwards, as shown by the dotted lines.

STEP 8

Fold the lower leaf section along the dotted line.

STEP 9

Fold it back in stages, starting a little above the previous fold, so the layer returns to the front.

STEP 10

Fold the layers back along the creases without creasing the petals themselves.

STEP 11

This is how it looks from the back. Now fold it forwards along the dotted line.

STEP 12

The morning glory and its leaves are finished. If any part lifts up, hold it down with a little glue.

STEP 13

If you fold step 6 towards the opposite side, the positions of the flower and the leaves are reversed.

Folding tips

This model is easy enough to fold together with young children.

Fold a whole batch of them, glue them onto a large sheet of paper, and draw in the vines and buds.