How to Make an Origami Bird Base

Start with a square sheet of paper. The front of your paper (the side you want to show in the end) corresponds to the blue side of the paper in the photo. The hidden back of the paper is white in the photo.

Fold the paper in half, into a rectangle. Be sure to crease your folds crisply.

Unfold, and fold in half the other way.

Unfold the rectangle. Turn the paper over and fold in half into a triangle. You should see the back of your paper. Unfold and repeat along the other diagonal.

Unfold the paper and turn it back over. You should see the diagonal creases create "valleys" and the perpendicular creases create "mountains".

Bring the corners together. Allow the valley creases to meet in the middle. By flattening two opposite sides, you should find yourself with a square that is open on the bottom. Make sure your square is rotated so that the opening is on the bottom, as shown in the picture. (Now you've made the square base.)

Bring the right corner of the top flap to the middle crease, so that the lower right edge lines up with the crease.

Repeat this action on the left, so that the top looks like a kite.

Fold down the top corner to make the crease lie along the horizontal line created in the previous two steps.

Unfold. In doing so, you return to having a square with an opening facing down.

Take the bottom corner of the square and start to fold it up along the horizontal crease you made in the previous two steps. As you fold, note the four diagonal creases on the inside that you made earlier. You will need to reverse the two creases on the upper flap. To reverse a crease, fold it in the opposite direction that it naturally folds. Bring the outer edges to the middle and flatten, so that you have a diamond.

Turn your paper over, and repeat the previous five steps. Now you've finished your bird base! Perhaps try making a crane now.