No real snow around here yet, so the boys and I spent the morning making different kinds of paper snowflakes! We did some of your basic fold-and-cut variety, but then I decided to get a little craftier.
My friend Donna made some beautiful snowflakes for a MOPS Christmas party a few years back and I knew I wanted a few of them hanging up in the house this winter! They were really much simpler than I remembered – I think you’ll have fun with them!
Here’s what you need:
Supplies: Paper, scissors, tape and/or stapler
I used regular copy paper, but you coud you wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, anything! The important thing is to have six equal-sized SQUARE pieces of paper. If your paper is NOT already a square, it’s easy to make the squares…
After you have your square pieces, fold the paper in half once to make a triangle, then in half once more to make a smaller triangle. Just two folds!
Now to cut…
You will be making three cuts, spaced equally, cutting PARALLEL to the longest side of the triangle.
Start at the folded short side and move towards the open short side. DO NOT cut all the way through – I left about a 1/2 inch uncut.
This is what it will look like after you cut, first while folded and then unfolded…
Pretty painless so far, right? Let’s keep moving!
You’ll need tape for this next part. Some tutorials mention glue with this project, but I think it is too messy and doesn’t dry fast enough!
Starting with the smallest square, bring the two points together and tape so they form a roll.
Now, FLIP YOUR PAPER OVER. Do the same thing with the next square, bringing the two points together and taping them.
FLIP YOUR PAPER AGAIN. Tape the next square in a roll.
And, you guessed it, FLIP THE PAPER one last time and tape the points of the outside square in a roll.
This is what it will look like when you are done…
Doesn’t that look fancy?! Way to go! You’ve completed one part! Now do everything I just said five more times!
{I’ll wait while you finish.}
You should have six “arms” of the snowflake now – time to put them together! This is where I prefer to staple because tape doesn’t get all of the layers as well…
Line up the points of three of the “arms” and staple them together! Do the same with the other three “arms.”
The two sets of three now need to be joined to become one snowflake…
I used the stapler for this part, as well as for the last step…
Each arm needs to be joined to the arms on either side of it to achieve the full, fanned out look! Notice in the picture above how I’ve just brought the sides of two together – put another staple there, repeat all the way around, and here you go…
Big J proudly helped me along the way – folding this, holding that, and so on – so I let him show it off to all of you!
I realize it may seem like a lot of directions, but this was our second one of the day and it went super fast! It really isn’t that hard and gets even easier the more times you do it!
The first one we made has already found its place hanging near the Christmas tree…
I think I’ll whip up a few more to hang around the house because they are Just. So. Pretty. And can you imagine them made with some sparkly wrapping paper?! Gorgeous!
Make a few this weekend and turn your home into an INDOOR winter wonderland!
{Please let me know if you have any questions – I tried to be as clear as possible, but I’m happy to help if anything is confusing!}
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