Decorative Money Origami Heart

"An intricate money origami heart that's surprisingly easy to make..."

Give your sweetheart a pleasant surprise by including one of these pretty money hearts their Valentine's Day card ("treat yourself to something nice, honey!"). Or personalise your cash wedding gift by folding it into the most universally recognised symbol of love :-)

This decorative dollar bill origami money heart has a cute star-burst pattern in the centre. It looks more flamboyant than the simple version, and is only a little trickier to fold.

Now for the instructions. I'll show picture instructions first, but if you like you can skip ahead to the video instructions. By the way, if you've never tried folding money before, perhaps you'd like to build your confidence by starting on the simpler heart.

Picture Instructions

A wise person once told me, "bit by bit, one by one, suddenly, job is done!". No, wait, it wasn't a wise person, I saw it written on a fridge magnet. Anyway, don't be alarmed by the number of steps. Just take them one at a time.

Step 1: Fold and unfold along the dotted lines shown here. Folds are at 45 degrees, so they bring the side of the paper into line with the top or bottom.

Step 2: Turn the bill over, then fold and unfold along these dotted lines. Each fold goes through the centre of a 'cross' from the previous step.

Step 3: Turn the bill over again, and fold it into this shape. (It will fold into this shape naturally anyway, because of the creases you made in the previous steps.) Then fold in half, right to left.

Step 4: Fold the little corner tabs, along the lines shown.

Step 5: On the left side of the note, there are two big triangular flaps. Fold the top flap to the right, along this dotted line.

Step 6: Now there are some loose flaps at the top and the bottom. Fold them as shown.

Step 7: Take one of the little flaps you folded in the last step, and flatten it into a square, like the one on the top-right of this photo. Then repeat with the other three flaps.

Step 8: Now you have four little flattened squares. Fold in the edges along the dotted lines shown.

Step 9: Take one of the little flaps you folded in the last step, and flatten it into a sort of kite shape, like on the top-right of this photo. Then repeat with the other 7 little flaps.

Step 10: It should look like this now. Flip it over.

Step 11: Fold along the dotted line

Step 12: Fold in the side-corners to finish off the heart shape.

Step 13: Turn the bill over, and your money origami heart is complete!

How did it go? Did it work? If so, well done! The steps are a bit tricky to explain with pictures, so you did well to follow them :-)

If you ended up with a crumpled piece of paper instead of a beautiful money origami heart, don't despair! Perhaps the video instructions below will make the process clearer for you.

Video Instructions

Click the white arrow to play. If the video doesn't display, you might need to download the free Adobe flash player.

What next?

Keeping with the romantic theme, have a go at the simpler heart.

Happy gifting!

Return from Decorative Money Origami Heart to Money Origami

Back to Homemade-Gifts-Made-Easy Home Page