Make a Paper Snowflake
Each snowflake is unique and so will be the ones you make! Whether it's December 24th or July 24th, these snowflakes are beautiful and quite easy to make; all you'll need is some paper and a pair of scissors. Because of their simplicity and aesthetic appeal, paper snowflakes are a fantastic craft idea for kids and adults alike.
Contents
Steps
Round Snowflake
- Fold a piece of paper in half. For a standard snowflake, normal printer paper (8.5 x 11) is just fine. To get fancy, decorate your paper beforehand in colored pencil, crayon, or marker. Or use colored paper!
- Find the center of the paper on the fold. Then grab the bottom corner and bring it to the center, forming a triangle. Then, fold it again, turning over the folded corner. The paper should end up being folded into thirds, slightly resembling a cone shape.
- If you found that confusing, fold one side over about 1/3 of the way and then fold the other side over to cover the first side. Any better?
- When you're handling your soon-to-be snowflake, always keep the point down. This is the center of your snowflake.
- Fold in half. You have a mini-cone in front of you, right? Just like this?
- Cut off the top in a very slight arch. You are cutting through all the layers just where the top layer stops. It should be pretty clear to see. You're now ready to create your snowflake!
- Start cutting. You may want to begin with a very simple pattern and then move on to more complicated patterns. Or dive in. The smaller the cuts (and the more in number), the more detailed your snowflake will be.
- Unfold the snowflake. Unfolding takes some patience (make sure it doesn't tear!), but you'll have your first six-sided snowflake in seconds. Tada! Onto the next!
Angular Snowflake
- Get a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper. Create a perfect square by taking the bottom corner and folding it over to the top, at a diagonal. A 3" (7.5 cm) or so piece will be sticking out. Cut off the excess so you're working with just the square.
- At all steps in this method make sure your creases are firm and straight. If they're not clean and symmetrical, you may end up with a wonky snowflake.
- Fold the paper in half, in a triangle shape. This is the same fold you made in the first step and is only mentioned in case you unfolded it to cut. Once it's folded once, fold it again, forming an even smaller triangle.
- At this point, you may fold it again to create a different, much smaller, base for your snowflake. Experiment! However, for kids, folding it again renders it much more difficult to work with.
- Start making cuts. This is where the snowflake gets really good. If you get creative with it, you'll end up with a pattern that's intricate, delicate, and detailed. Or you could end up with a couple of slits in a piece of paper. Cut in curves, angles, and swirls to get the most out of the paper.
- You may find it useful to hold on to the center of the snowflake -- the very tip. Though you can cut it off and the snowflake will hold together! The more paper you cut off, the flimsier it will be -- not necessarily a bad thing.
- Carefully unfold your snowflake. If you've made a lot of cuts, the snowflake may rip, so be careful. And if your cuts were very small, sometimes the layers of paper stick together (think election day 2000).
- If you're not happy with your pattern, fold it back up and take a few more whacks at the paper. Problem solved.
Printable Templates
Doc:Heart Snowflake,Snowflake,Tree Snowflake
Tips
- If you punch a hole in your snowflake, tie some yarn in the hole and cover the snowflake in glue and glitter; it makes a great ornament.
- If you don't want to cut a circle out or can't cut a good one, try using a coffee filter instead, all you do have to do is fold it half and follow the steps.
- Older children and adults doing this craft may want to sketch a design before cutting. This helps create snowflakes with more intricate designs than randomly cut shapes.
- You'll have lots of excess paper that can be recycled. Go green.
- Snowflakes made from copier paper will be more symmetrical although not completely. They'll be good for hanging but may droop. Try laminating them when finished to make them more durable. This way you can use them year after year.
- You might want to do this over a trash can/bin, since making paper snowflakes means having little pieces of paper fall all over the place.
- Construction paper snowflakes, while harder to cut, will be stronger. This means each of the six prongs will be slightly different, definitely not completely symmetrical. So don't expect perfection.
- If you plan to turn your snow flakes into artwork, make some in different sizes and maybe even in slightly different shades of white and ice blue. Cover them in glitter to make them sparkle like ice crystals, if you wish. You could casually distribute them over a table as a festive decoration (and glue them to place cards for your guests) or turn them into a mobile to hang from the ceiling.
- You can use the remainder of the snowflake to make a crown for your child. Keep the leftover paper folded, cut a rounded edge on the top, unfold and place on head. You could examine other ways to make this more effective - like cutting it so it's one long strip and then gluing the strip onto more sturdy paper or foam so as to make a real crown. Both princesses and princes will enjoy these.
- Maybe use card instead of paper so then it won't be so flimsy.
- A good idea would be to put white glitter glue on it to make it sparkle.
- As a pretty decoration, you could try to put a little glue then glitter on your snowflakes. You could also dab on some toothpaste with a sponge (which sounds crazy yet looks nice) then hang them up in a room that needs some Christmas spirit.
- Don't worry how the snowflake looks. Just remember, every snowflake is different.
Warnings
- Adult supervision of young children is essential during the cutting stages as they may cut themselves.
Things You'll Need
- Paper
- Scissors
- Markers/crayons (optional)
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