Member Reviews

Origami is a fascinating craft. It's almost magical how an ordinary piece of paper can morph into an object with only folding!
I wasn't aware that Kawaii Origami by Chrissy Pushkin was from the origami site Paper Kawaii! I love how she makes things slightly different(and cuter!) from the usual ones you find online, like a drawer, sushi, dustbin, bookmark, and the teabag found in today's post. Her latest book 'Kawaii Origami' has 50 new designs with easy to understand diagrams on how to make an origami bento box, envelopes, keychain tag, simple purse and more! What I wish could be improved is more variety of themes(this one appears to focus more on Japanese themed items) and more testing or some way to ensure a higher success rate of the end product.
Other than those, this is a fun and adorable book if you're into cute origami, suitable for beginners and intermediate crafters alike.

Was this review helpful?

As a disclaimer, I'm terrible at origami. Terrible. This origami book actually gives instructions that origami rookies have a hope of following! From boxes to stars (and eventually ice cream), there's something adorable for any skill level.

Was this review helpful?

These are adorable projects with easy instructions. I enjoyed the layout and am excited to create even more origami pieces.

Was this review helpful?

Kawaii Origami by Chrissy Pushkin is full of creative origami projects. My favorite was the tiny trash can. The pictures are amazing and bring the book to life. The projects are for advanced origami makers or those with a better grasp of directions. Once I was shown how to do a few of the folds, it was much easier. With a bit of patience this would be a great book for any origami lover.

Was this review helpful?

This is very creative. You will get 50 sheets of origami paper with this book and inside are the step-by-step instructions to help. Pushkin is an expert from Paper Kawaii and provides a greatly detailed book. She is also the creator of the website Paper Kawaii, which is popular. You could make an origami ice cream cone with multiple "flavors" or mini drawer with space for items. There are 25 projects with illustrations provided. The origami in this book is a combination of the Japanese art and Kawaii pop-art style. Kids and beginners to origami will love this book as will those with a talent for the artform.

Was this review helpful?

The projects are indeed kawaii, ranging from boxes and lucky stars, to bookmarks, cacti, sushi, and more! Projects are rated by difficulty level, which is helpful to know, especially for beginners to origami. The instructions are clear and easy to follow.

Was this review helpful?

This was an adorable and easy to follow origami book perfect for beginners or kids. The projects are basic but useful. Plus the layout of the book and the photographs inside will have readers pulling the book off the shelf by cover appeal alone. My favorite project is the flower bowls, but also the book mark.

Was this review helpful?

This colorful book explain in easy to follow, step by step projects, how to make different small useful object, folding sheets of paper with origami technique. You will make boxes, bags, envelopes, cactus, icecreams and others.

I received the book by Quarto Publishing Group as a Netgalley reviewer.

Was this review helpful?

Whenever I want to learn a new origami design, I check out Chrissy Pushkin’s Paper Kawaii website or YouTube page first. Just as with her online tutorials, her new book includes clear, easy-to-follow instructions for designs of various skill levels. The Kawaii art style is all about cuteness. There are adorable pictures throughout the book that makes it fun to flip through. I reviewed an electronic copy of the book but will be purchasing a print copy so that I can get the 50 sheets of origami paper. I recommend this book to anyone who has always wanted to give origami a try.

Was this review helpful?

Too cute!! Everything in this book is beyond adorable I can't wait to buy my own copy and make some kawaii origami!

Was this review helpful?

Race Point Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Kawaii Origami: Super Cute Origami Projects for Easy Folding Fun. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Do not let the cuteness fool you, Kawaii Origami is a well laid out, smartly put together book. I particularly liked the attention to the small details by the author, namely the table of contents with its pictures of each finished origami project. The author does a great job of describing Kawaii style, as well as the techniques and tools needed to be successful. The pages are filled with step-by-step instruction, so crafters of all skill levels will be able to follow along.

Kawaii Origami is a mix of the practical and the whimsical, so readers will be able to both use and display their finished work. Those who are looking for little storage options can choose such projects as the Masu Box (p. 8), Mini Trash Bin (p. 75), and the Mini Drawer (p. 80). There are options for little gifts, such as Love Knots (p. 29) and Woven Bracelet (p. 44). Whimsical projects include Ice Cream (p. 91), Bento Box (p. 67), and Cactus (p. 57). With other small items with which to practice folding techniques and learn new skills, Kawaii Origami simply has something here for everyone. I highly recommend Kawaii Origami: Super Cute Origami Projects for Easy Folding Fun to readers of all ages and skill levels.

Was this review helpful?

This is a great origami book. It contains cute projects different from the normal crane and butterfly we folded as kids. The colors are bright. The illustrations are easy to follow. The results are bragworthy.

The projects in this manual include a tea bag, an ice cream cone and a mini drawer. I enjoyed the clear instructions that showed arrows where the paper was to be bent and the contrasting color plainly seen. So often these are lacking when trying to learn an origami project.

I thought the variety of projects was interesting. Many books contain just origami animals, or origami flowers, etc. The reader can attempt their skill at folding many different items in this book.

After each instruction, a beautiful picture of the brightly colored finished project is found. Just looking at the results makes you smile and want to try your hand at origami.


I received an ARC from Quarto Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book.

Was this review helpful?

Oh my goodness, this book is truely "Kawaii"
I love the mix of projects in it, from useful to functional and decorative.
The projects range in difficulty.

The directions are clear and well explained, and there are suggestions for colour mixes and ways to decorate them.

I have to say I love all the projects in here, but the flower bowl, lucky stars and mini drawers are just lovely.
I will be having a try at all of them.

Overall a lovely, clear, colourful, super cute book that would make a fabulous gift for any crafter .

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Was this review helpful?

This is such a fun book! It has the cutest origami shapes with step-by-step illustrations and descriptions to help you create your own. It guides you through every step of the process. I liked the variety from bracelets to small boxes. This is definitely a great book for paper and origami lovers. It’s also a perfect gift for a creative person. Even if the person doesn’t like colorful creations, they can use their own colors and imagination. This book is very entertaining and cute! 100% recommend!

Was this review helpful?

This is a book filled with paper folding/origami projects that look adorable. Some of my favorites are the bento box. the cat & dog hearts, the tea bag and the dustpan & scoop. The beginning of the book provides detailed instructions on the basic origami folds. Each project is presented in step sequence with diagrams and illustrations. If you enjoy origami, definitely take a look at this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-galley of a book filled with fun projects. All opinions are my own.

Was this review helpful?

Kawaii Origami combines the cute Japanese pop art with more traditional paper folding to create original art using only colored paper and a few simple tools.

If you or your crafty child love Japanese culture, this is a perfect choice for some fun-filled hours. The set includes fifty sheets of colored paper but I would highly recommend practicing on cheap copy paper first.

All twenty-five projects include a difficulty rating of one to five stars. Even the pictures of the five-star Twinkle Star and Flower Bowl look complicated but the results are correspondingly impressive. Many of the easier projects, like the one-star Lucky Stars, two-star Tea Bag, and three-star Cute Purse are pretty enough to display or give as gifts.

Spend a few hours being a maker and create some cute paper decorations using only Kawaii Origami and some scissors. Your choice of color will make each result uniquely your own. 4 stars for going beyond the usual frogs and birds of traditional origami books!

Thanks to Race Point Publishing and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Kawaii Origami has 25 models (some with multiple parts) ranging from easy to fairly involved, though even the ones given 5 stars for complexity are still reasonably accessible. All are well-explained and clearly illustrated. Because of the title, I was initially concerned that this book might be full of poorly detailed models that look like nothing until you draw googly eyes on them with magic marker. Fortunately, this turns out to be untrue. There was a heavy concentration on boxes or objects with box-like shapes (9 out of 25 models), and three envelope-like shapes (including one very cute purse). This was a pleasant surprise for me, because I happen to like boxes, but many of these were based on similar shapes, so if you really want to concentrate on folding boxes you would probably be better served by one of Tomoko Fuse's books. Note for purists: some models start with non-square paper (four are based on weaving strips), but actually most of them are based on the traditional square. A number of the models use cutting. That's not as scandalous as it sounds--the woven-strip models ask you to trim off the loose ends (if you're that much of a stickler you'd skip the strip models anyway), and the last three models start with square paper and have you do a bunch of folds before making a single cut to turn the paper into a regular pentagon or decagon, the real starting point. Two of the models (the ice cream cone and the nigiri sushi) have non-optional slits in the middle of the folding sequence. There is glue in a couple of places, but with a couple of exceptions (including the ice cream cone) it seems mostly for optional decorative touches, like securing a string to the tea bag. Strangely, the instructions for the cute, completely traditional maki sushi (the inner "fish" inside the "rice" is accomplished by a clever sink-folding method) are followed by an unnecessary alternative folding strategy that the author describes as "more advanced"--but that involves cheating by gluing on a square of colored paper. I like the various traditionally folded boxes and purse enough to think that the book justifies its kawaii title and would be a good gift.

Was this review helpful?

Review comes tomorrow to my blog/other sites.

A brand-new origami book popped up on Netgalley and of course I couldn't resist requesting it. Especially since it promised tons and tons of kawaiiness, and I do love cuteness.

The cover was also just sweet and made me want to read and get started.I have to say... seeing the projects, I had expected more cuteness. Most of these projects... weren't that kawaii. Sorry, a trashcan? A round pot? Dustpan & Scoop? Boxes? No. I expected cute animals, food (like candy), items (like jewellery or pillows), or some more plants. Thankfully, there are projects that were cute (my favourite is the ice cream, followed by the sushi and then the cactus).

Note: I haven't done all the projects, as I said some just weren't cute (and I came here for cuteness not dustpans), and some were just some I (and my fiance) already had tried dozens of times in other origami books.

The projects we tried out are: Purse, Tea Bag, Cat & Dog Hearts, Sushi, Ice Cream (which didn't work entirely...). 

The book starts, as so many do, with an introduction and then what tools you need and how the basic folds go.And then the projects start. Each project has cute stars letting you know how difficult the activity is.I would have like a bit uniformity, now it was either starting with a photograph or not, which was a bit confusing. If anything, I would have liked to see the photograph at the beginning all the time. To give a clear view on how it will look when you are done. Sure, if you flip the page you will see the project photographed, but still, show that at the beginning. Photographs are clear and sharp and showed the project in a good way. I know this sounds weird, but I have had ARCs that had blurry photographs or photographs that didn't show the project properly.

The instructions on the how to make this origami piece are fairly easy to follow, you have a good guide with the pictures (which all match to what you should do), and with added written instructions you can't go wrong. We (well, mostly my fiance) did a nice number of origami projects from this book, from very simple to OMG is this a good idea (like the ice cream)? Some projects have to be done at another time as we didn't have all the necessary items (right sized paper or origami with a white side on one side for instance), we have tons of origami stuff, but apparently not enough). 

It was quite fun doing these projects, and even though not all of these items are kawaii, I would recommend it. It will definitely be a few hours of fun with origami.

Was this review helpful?

This book had some fantastic ideas and they look like the directions will be fairly simple. I will be using this with my art time. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

Was this review helpful?

What I have always found fascinating, is that you can make a lot of stuff (even quite sturdy) from paper alone. By that I mean without glue or other devices. Origami is of course foremost in this art, and this book has some great examples. Very good illustrations that are easy to follow, so that you can make your own cute stuff.

Was this review helpful?