3D origami wedding swans

Another wedding, another 3D origami gift^_^  (diagram below)

 I like crafting new wedding gifts! I always start with a simple idea of 2 figures together (usually a bride & groom or swans) stuck on some platform, and end up adding little details as I go/ think of them, and they all add up to make the gift much nicer. Its the little details that count. I'll explain my process and maybe you guys can get some ideas on crafting your own wedding gifts :-) or any gift for any occasion.

So I just found out a week before about the wedding. Swans seemed to be the easiest so I went with that. The plan was to make 2 white swans with flared wings, which look more elegant (The older swans I made just had triangle shaped wings), and add some colour on the tips of the wings (blue and pink to make a 'guy & girl' swan). 

                                                                                Decided to add quilled flowers to the wings of the swan since they look intricate and delicate. Glued pearl beads on them too to add a 'jewellery' look. It gives it more pearly/ sparkly-ness (not that they're sparkly but the light reflects off them and it just looks more nice).

I wanted to add some gold pieces to make it look nicer/ formal, so added a piece on the beak of the swan. I didnt have time to fold much gold pieces, so I only added a little bit. Less is more ^_^ Made a big white loop  for the border of the platform (which kinda acts as a 'lake' for the swans). It was looking plain so I added some gold pieces spread evenly throughout the loop, I think theres only 8, with 20 white pieces between them. It looked empty between the gold so I filled it with a bit of the pastel colours used in the swan wings. 2 light pink, 2 light peach, 2 light blue. A few coloured pieces repeated in between something plain can make it look much more nicer. You dont need much coloured pieces.

 I had some 'scrap' crafts like tiny cranes and quilled flowers and glued them onto the platform. The tiny gold cranes gives it a nice touch since they match the gold pieces in the 3D origami and they just look so tiny and peaceful^_^ The quilled flowers in the 'lake' kinda look like lily pads too. 

Had some scrap pink paper lying around, so used a heart shaped hole puncher on it to get some pink hearts, and glued them onto the platform. They're like leaves/petals to add to the love/ wedding theme. Also found a small origami heart in my craft scraps so glued that on too

 

So there you have it, plain white swans with hints of soft pastel colours and a few gold pieces here and there that make it sparkle. This simple, soft and elegant look makes a good wedding, anniversary or valentines gift, or even just a fancy table centrepiece ^_^ 

DIAGRAM- click to enlarge