frankie exclusive diy: paper gems

They say diamonds are a girl's best friend, so imagine how excited we were when we discovered you can make your own gems at home! Homemade besties? Yes please.

Okay, so these diamonds are made of paper, not precious stones, but with a few clever folds you can make pretty garlands, a backdrop for a party or even build mobiles. Plus they come in all colours of the rainbow so you coloured diamond lovers will feel right at home.

All you need is some coloured paper, sewing thread and some basic origami skills. Don't worry if you have never done origami before, here is a step by step guide of how to make paper gems. To make things even easier, you don't even need to measure your cuts or folds - keep it random to create a variety of shapes and sizes.



1. Start with a sheet of A4 coloured paper and cut a strip along the long edge. It can be as thick or thin as you like; thicker widths will give you a larger diamond, whereas thinner strips will make smaller, sturdier diamonds.



2. Fold the edge in from one corner to create a small triangle on one end.



3. Turn over and fold back on itself to make another triangle behind the first. Repeat along the whole length of the strip, folding over each side like an accordion.



4. Unfold and along the straight folds (in between the diagonals) fold these lines again to change the fold direction.



5. Starting from one end, roll the paper onto itself to create the diamond shape. It takes a couple of tries but you want all of the edges to line up into a geometric shape.



6. Wrap the rest of the strip around each of the faces a couple of times to form a solid shape.



7. Trim off the end triangle and slip the new diagonal end into the closest slit to secure. (Larger diamonds may need a bit of tape to secure properly).



8. String the diamonds along a length of thread by threading behind the securing fold.



Once you have a nice pile of different coloured gems there are a multitude of different ways to display them. Hang long strings of diamonds from the ceiling for pretty backdrop, string a single row around the room as a pretty garland, or tie short lengths to a coat hanger for a simple mobile.