Sunday, November 30, 2008

Supercool Snowflake Tutorial!

My Aunt Jane taught 2nd grade in Claremont, CA and passed down the secret for these awesome snowflakes! I used to do them every year in my classroom. One New Year's Eve I did a whole snowflake theme and made about 50 of them out of shimmery blue wrapping paper, with white on the back. I hung them from every ceiling in my house. (Sometimes I still find a piece of double stick tape on the ceiling.) Once you start, you won't be able to stop! Enjoy!


For each snowflake you will need six squares of paper, scissors, adhesive (tape/gluestick/whatever), and a stapler.



I began with an 8 1/2 inch x 8 1/2 inch Square of paper for a 16 inch snowflake (you can use any size square).

Fold it in half, diagonally (corners together) to make a triangle. Then do it again.

Mark each triangle as shown (well, really after the first you can do it without lines, but if you want kids to help the lines are a good idea.) DO NOT cut all the way through! Stop cutting about a half inch from the edge.


You will cut strips about one inch apart, going from the side with only one fold toward the side with two folds, parallel to the side with four pieces of paper. (Huh? Yeah, better go by the above image.)




Open it up and you will have a diamond with four triangles on each side.



Put glue/adhesive/tape on every other point. Where the x is. You will be rolling two up, and then the alternate two down.

See. Two up.



Then turn it over, and do two the opposite direction...



Thus, ending up with this cool thing. You will need six of these to make one snowflake.


Staple three together at the point and then at the place where they touch together (where the stapler is in this pic.) Then staple two of these together.



These can be hung by a nylon thread and look absolutely stunning!
Big B answered a date for Winter Formal last year, by hanging these all over her entry. The smaller snowflakes had the letters Y,E, S, cut into their patterns. Tricky!


Happy Snowflake making!


Come back and send me links to your beautiful creations! We've used these to decorate the stage for Christmas programs, the cultural hall for RS Christmas dinner, and hung them from the eaves! Beautiful!


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25 comments:

Lorie said...

I have been wanting to know how to make those! We will have to make them tomorrow! I am going to copy you and hang them outside!!

Mamarazzi said...

TOTALLY super cool!! i am seriously going to make these!!

Are You Serious! said...

♥ THose are really GREAT!!! I love the way they look! :)

Supercool Hotmama said...

Holy crap you people are fast.

Michelle said...

I love those. Maybe it will be a FHE activity for tomorrow...my boys will love them. I think we'll hang them in our porch area. I'll post pics if we really get them done.

Jen said...

Those are AWESOME!!! Now lets see if UNCRAFTY me can figure out how to make them! ;) I know, there's a tutorial, but it's ME we're talking about here!

tammi said...

Cool! Thanks for the tutorial ~ I'll have to try that with the girls.

Chrissy, said...

I'm linking away! I'm sure we will use this often, thanks for posting it.:)

Jen Sue Wild said...

These Rock!!
I am so going to try these bad boys..
I just hope I am smart enough to figure them out..

TexasRanger said...

Oh my word...

Those are amazing!!!

Jules said...

Bizarre! I commented on this last night.. where did it go? Oh well. Theses are awesome! I definitely will be doing these with the kids. Thanks for sharing your (or others') great craft ideas!!!

tiki_lady said...

these are beautiful! ok, i am going to try them. Thank you for the directions!!! I don't seem to do very well with instructions. I'm basically a look at the picture and figure it! so, I promise I will read the directions.

Jaina said...

I'm going to have to come back and go through this again when it's not so early. Well, I guess it's about 9, but I'm still sleepy. Haha. These look amazing!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for taking the time to share this. I'm going to give them a try this week. :)

latree said...

I really have to try this one. thanks!

Michelle said...

I finally did a post about these cool snowflakes and referred them to your tutorial. So, you'll probably be getting some extra traffic on you blog in the next couple of days. Thanks for the idea.

James and Monica said...

Just made it!!! My husband thinks it's the coolest things ever!!! I love it. Thank you so much for your tutorial!

Sportpics4U said...

That's awesome. Thank you for giving the directions. My hubby and children were impressed.

Diane Conn said...

Hey thanks for those snowflake directions. Now I just wish I had a reason to make a whole bunch of them!

I did make ONE and posted it to my blog
www.carrotsticksandcupcakes.blogspot.com

Dana said...

I love this! I'm definately going to try it next winter!

Bruce Jones said...

I am going to show this to my daughter ASAP! She has really been into the paper folding thing lately. I think she will really like this.

Thanks!!

Tiffany Feger said...

My cousin's friend sent her this link b/c she's doing a penguin bday party in January 2010 and wants the house to look like "Elf" had been there. she knows i love snowflakes too, so I just made one too. thanks!

Adena (aka cre82learn) said...

I made some and they turned out sooo cute you can see them here!! Linked back to you.
Adena @ Friendship Alley(dot)com

Unknown said...

U would love to learn how to make this spectacular ornament (super cool snowflake) and would be pleased if you would sent the directions to me at nutoyu2@gmail.com.
Thanks so much,
Kathleen

Dazed Designs Jewellery said...

I made one of these the other day! Thanks to your lovely tutorial :) I blogged a pic of my finished snowflake!

Thanks again for the great tutorial!

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