1. Start with a square sheet of paper.

Using scrapbook paper, with a print on one side and plain white on the other, can be a fun way to watch your folds evolve.

To make a letter-size piece of paper a square, orient it lengthwise, grab the top right corner, and pull it over to the left side of the paper. Make sure the edges of the paper line up, and fold. Cut off the bottom rectangle, and you'll have a square. 2. Fold two opposite corners of the square together. Crease the square, then unfold.
3. Fold the other two opposite corners of the square together. Again, crease the square, then unfold. You should have two perpendicular creases running through your square and meeting in the middle. This middle point will be your guide for the next step.

4. Fold the corners up to the center. Grab a corner, and place it so that its point lies directly over the "middle" of the two creases you just created in the center of the square. Fold down. Do this for each corner. 5. Fold the new corners up to the center. Since the last step resulted in a smaller square, you now have "new" corners. Fold these up to the center one by one, as you did in the last step.
6. Fold the corners up to the center again. 7. Flip your square over. You should now be on a side that has no visible folds on top. 8. Fold the corners up to the center. 9. Grab each corner and fold it about half of the way to the center. This time, you don't want the corners to go all the way to the center (and you probably couldn't get them there anyway--your folds should be pretty thick and difficult to crease by now). Fold the last corners up as far as you can - between one-third and one-half of the way to the center is sufficient. 10. Pull up your first petals. Keeping the square oriented so that you can see the last folds you did, feel around the bottom of the square for the top layer of flaps. You're going to gently pull these up and around the half folds you did in Step 9. Move slowly and gently, and try not to tear the paper. You may have to slightly "unfold" the lotus to get the petals to come up. When you're finished, the flap you grabbed from the bottom should be nearly vertical. Do this four all four flaps 11. Pull up the next round of petals. Again, grab the flaps on the bottom and gently lift them up. 12. Pull up the last round of petals. Once again, grab the flaps on the bottom and gently fold them upward. These petals will be closer to horizontal than vertical, and they might be the most difficult ones to fold without tearing.