Being obsessed with Christmas means I get unusually giddy about the first snowfall. Here in Massachusetts, we actually got our first storm Halloween weekend. Thank you, New England, you crazy weather demon, you. That was a little early even for me.
Now that it’s November, however, I’m ready. Bring it on, Mother Nature! I’m from Vermont. You can’t scare me with a little Halloween snowstorm! ( I will probably be cursing those words come January).
In the holiday spirit, I would like to share with you the secret for making 6 pointed paper snowflakes. Now, I know the method we all were taught in school was to fold a square piece of paper up into a triangle and cut random pieces out, but this means you ALWAYS end up with a square snowflake, which is not especially pretty.
I learned this technique from a family friend when I was in high school, and I’ve never looked back. All you need is some paper and a sharp pair of scissors. Grown-ups, feel free to use an X-acto knife for the smaller more precise cuts, but kiddos should stick with scissors!
You still start with a square piece of paper. Fold it along the diagonal, so you get a triangle. Put the fold towards you and the point away.
Fold the triangle in half again, creasing well, then unfold.
Now, take the point on the right , and fold it up from the crease and across, so you end up with a wing like this:
Now, fold the left side across the same way, so you end up with sort of a pointy tulip:
It may take some finagling to get all the edges to line up nicely!
Fold the tulip in half, so you end up with a nice arrow shape:
Fold your arrow in half, and cut a diagonal from that edge:
You should now have a triangle. You can change the angle of your cut to end up with fatter or skinnier snowflakes (see pictures at the end). This was a fairly shallow angle, to give a fatter snowflake.
Now, cut away! I am by no means the most creative snowflake cutter, so let your imagination run wild! You can also look up diagrams for snowflake cutting on Google and such if you’re not into free-form cutting.
Once you are done cutting, carefully open up your snowflake and admire your handiwork.
Shallow angle = fat snowflake
Deep angle = skinny snowflake
Try making them bigger or smaller. You could coat them with Mod Podge so you can use these year after year. Decorate ‘em with glitter, or use pretty scrapbook paper. It’s all up to you!
Isn’t that so much nicer than the ones you made in school?
