How to Fold an Origami Balloon Base

The origami balloon base, also known as the origami waterbomb base, is a series of standardized basic folds. The balloon base is used as a starting point for folding more complicated shapes like the popular inflating origami balloon.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Square origami paper

1. 

   Start your origami balloon base with a sheet of origami paper, colored side up. Fold the right edge of the paper over to the left edge and crease, then unfold.

2. 

   Fold the bottom edge of the paper up to the top edge, crease, then unfold.

3. 

   Turn the sheet of paper over so that the white side faces up.

4. 

   Fold the lower right corner of the paper up to the upper left corner. Crease along the fold.

5. 

   Unfold.

6. 

   Fold along the other diagonal, bringing the left left point up to meet the upper right point. Crease.

7. 

   Unfold.

8. 

   Bring the mid-points of the left and right sides together as seen in the photo. All the other creases should fall into shape as you do this, letting you collapse the paper into a flat triangle shape.

9. 

   Fiddle with the creases as necessary to tidy them up into a completed origami balloon base.