How to Make an Origami Fortune Teller

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Always a fun project, you can write in numbers, colors and fortunes to make this a working model. These instructions are going to take you through the process of folding the paper to make your fortune teller and we’ll even show you how to tell fortunes with it.

Step 1:

Start with a square piece of paper, and fold the bottom left corner up to the top right corner.


Unfold it and the fold the bottom right corner to the top left one.


Step 2:

Now, fold each corner over to the center crease you’ve created. First, one corner:


Then, the next corner:


Then the third:


And finally, the fourth:


Step 3:

Next, flip your model over and fold each point to the corner again. Here’s the first corner:


The second corner:


The third corner:


The fourth corner:


Now the folding is all done. All you need to is shape the fortune teller for use.

Step 4:

To open the fortune teller, slide your fingers inside the folds to open them up.


Then it’s ready to use.


What to Write on the Fortune Teller:

To tell fortunes, you need to add a few things to your fortune teller.

1. On the top four flaps, write down four different colors.


2. Unfold those flaps, and you’ll see 8 triangles. Write a number on each of these.


3. Open up those flaps, and there are 8 more triangles. Write in a fortune on each of these. Fortunes might say things like, “You will be lucky with money”, “You will receive an important phone call” or “An old friend will visit soon”.


How to Use the Fortune Teller:

1. The person whose fortune is being told, picks a color listed on one of the top four flaps.

2. The fortune teller is then opened using your fingertips, back and forth, for the number of letters in the chosen color. For example, if the recipient chooses “red’, the fortune teller will say “R-E-D” as the fortune is moved back and forth. 


3. Next the recipient, is presented with numbers and again, chooses one. The fortune then opens the flap to read the fortune.