Here is a small truth about paper flowers: the blossoms get the attention, but the leaves are what stop people from asking "is that a flower?" A hydrangea spray with a few tucked-in leaves suddenly reads as a plant instead of a pile of pompoms, and luckily leaves are the quickest, most forgiving part of the whole project.

This guide shows four different ways to fold them, and you can stop at whichever one suits the bouquet you are building. The first takes about ten seconds - two corner folds and you are holding a leaf. The second needs scissors, the third gets clever with a zigzag of mountain and valley folds to raise little veins down the blade, and the fourth stands up off the page in three dimensions. None of them needs more than a single square of paper, and all four together take about as long as folding one blossom.

Hydrangea Leaf ①

The leaves I'm going to introduce are so easy that even kindergarten children can do them. Fold the top and bottom corners.

Done.

The leaves introduced below can be easily made, but be careful with small children, since scissors are involved.

Hydrangea Leaf ②

STEP 1. Fold the paper into a triangle.

STEP 2. Fold along the dotted line.

STEP 3. Cut the corners into a rounded shape.

Unfold the paper and the leaf is done.

Those were two kinds of hydrangea leaves.

I think both are simple and quick to make.

The next leaf really looks like a leaf, because it has veins.

Hydrangea Leaf ③

STEP 1. Fold the paper into a triangle.

STEP 2. Fold the corners to the front and to the back.

STEP 3. Fold along the dotted line.

STEP 4. Fold along the dotted line (this fold is what adds the veins to the leaf, so the exact width does not matter)

STEP 5. Using the width of the fold from step 4, fold the paper back and forth into a zigzag, alternating mountain folds and valley folds.

It looks like this.

STEP 6. You could stop here, but try folding the four corners slightly to the back.

STEP 7. It looks much more like a leaf now, and it is done.

Did yours turn out well?

I think this one looks the most like a real hydrangea leaf.

Unlike the leaves above, the next one is three-dimensional.

Hydrangea Leaf ④

STEP 1. With the colored side facing up, fold the paper into a triangle twice to make creases.

STEP 2. Fold all four corners toward the center.

Turn the paper over.

STEP 3. Fold all four corners toward the center.

STEP 4. Fold all four corners toward the center.

Turn the paper over.

STEP 5. Open out the four sections that will become the leaves.

Done.

Paste the blossoms on and it looks like this.