Paper Snowflake Tutorial

When I posted my Winter mantel a few days ago, several of you requested a tutorial of how to make the paper snowflakes that I used in my banner.   I'm no tutorial expert, but I'll give it a try.

Do you remember making paper snowflakes that looked like this when you were a kid?  (From notebook paper no less!)

I remember seeing pretty snowflakes, ones that were round or star-shaped, but could never figure out how to make them.  Remember we didn't have the internet back then!

Just before Christmas, one of my students gave me a snowflake that looked like the one above.  Grateful though I was, it stirred up my old childhood wish to make pretty snowflakes.   

Needless to say, I finally learned how to make them (some 30 years later) and once I got started, I couldn't stop!

Ok, tutorial time, get ready for lots of pictures.  It's very dark here, so I apologize for the quality.

Step 1.  You need to start out with a square piece of paper.  I made all sizes, but this one is 8" x 8".

Step 2.  Fold this square into a triangle.

Step 3.  Fold the triangle over again into another smaller triangle.

Step 4.  Make sure the point of the triangle faces down, like so.

Things might get a little tricky for the next few steps, but hopefully the pictures will help you.

Step 5.  Take one side of the triangle and fold it over one-third of the way.

Step 6.  Take the other side of the triangle and fold it over again.

Step 7.  Turn the piece over to the back side and cut off the pointed ends.

Step 8.  Now take your shape and just start cutting rounded shapes, triangles, deep V's, whatever you like.  Just be careful not to cut away all the edges. 

This is what mine looked like when I was done cutting.



Step 9.  Gently open your shape and see your pretty snowflake creation!  This is the fun part because you never know what you're going to get.

You can make all different sizes and styles just by altering all the little cuts you make.  Like they say, no two snowflakes are alike. 

Have fun and see you soon!