Wow, two posts in two days for me. Cah-raaaazy. Happy Birthday, Jamie! You sweetie.
We were in a paper snowflake mood here after watching Elf. During the movie, I find myself getting really distracted from the antics by the profusion of snowflakes and paper chains Buddy festoons everywhere he goes.
So we made a bunch and taped them up everywhere in honor of the first day of winter. You can make some too with these great templates at Yarn Owl (via How About Orange). Print them at whatever size you like. All you do is fold on the dotted lines and cut out the black areas, and poof, a beautiful snowflake.
I found myself wanting to experiment with other shapes, so I also created this blank template (click here to download). With the hexagonal shape it is pretty easy to make an impressive snowflake with even very simple cutouts. Like this:
1) cut out the hexagon
2) fold in half
3) fold in half again
4) fold twice more on the dotted lines until you have this wedge
5) if you like, draw your shapes in pencil before you cut. Or just wing it.
6) cut out your shapes
7) unfold. poof! pretty snowflake.The hardest part for kids is cutting through the thickness of the paper after it is folded. Little hands may need some help cutting. After a while, my girls also enjoyed just letting me do the cutting, then unfolding the snowflakes to reveal their shapes. That's the really fun part after all.
It occurred to me that this could also make a nice last-minute handmade gift for someone on your list. Neatly cut out a particularly spectacular snowflake, iron it flat, then mount it inside a nice frame with some pretty paper or fabric as the background. And there you go. Christmas decor.
Or, snowflake cards! Ooh. Or snowflake embellished stockings! Ooh! Or snowflake appliques on dresses! I could go on and on.
very very cool,
ReplyDeleteLove it. I will make myself one of those, maybe a few, and in felt on a background of black.
Very nice! Effective too, but here it's so hot I simply can't think of snow...maybe snowcones instead...
ReplyDeletethanks so much for the snowflake link, the boys and I just did all six snowflakes in record time and now they are moving on to their own designs. Merry Christmas
ReplyDeleteI think I may have to make some out of felt for the Christmas Tree!!
Thank you - I've been wanting to make some of these (despite the fact it's summer down here in the Southern hemisphere - we still cling to the Northern hemisphere images of Christmas). Wonderful tutorial and links.
ReplyDeleteLovely, as usual :o) I am totally going to make some Christmas/January wallart. Such a good idea. And next year I'm going to put some little felt one's on my tree. I kind of have a love affair with the snowflakes. Sigh. So So pretty, thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteI Purr-Furr to Craft and pinksuedeshoe, let me know how the felt snowflakes turn out. I was wondering if folding the felt like that in so many layers might make it impossible to cut. Or do you just cut those without folding using a paper template? oh. duh. Of course.
ReplyDeletemandapanda and fiandneez, sorry for the northern-hemisphere-centric post. Ha! Enjoy your Christmas by the pool. :-)
ReplyDelete(Megan I meant to include you in the felt question too. let me know!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, made some retro construction paper chains and then stapled these snowflakes every so often on it....My kids loved it!
ReplyDeletesnowflake envy! here's a few of ours. http://wanderingknits.blogspot.com/2010/01/watercolor-calendar-is-everything-id.html
ReplyDeletethree of my four kids will see your page and want to make more flakes. they are cool. maybe i'll start calling them "Buddy."
I came across this post after searching for how to make a snowflake because our family want to be a part of the Connecticut PTA helping transform Sandy Hook Elementary into a Winter Wonderland so the kids returning to school after winter break can have a chance of not associating the horror of last weeks tragedy with their school building. Anyway, I wanted to let you know I have shared this post to help others who are snow flake challenged, like myself, make beautiful snowflakes for those beautiful kids :)Thanks for this post!
ReplyDeleteAmy Diaz, I'm so glad if this blog can in any way make a difference to those suffering in CT right now. Thanks for letting me know!
ReplyDeleteThank you! This template makes for great math talk in second grade.
ReplyDeleteJefffff! Hey, dude! Tell Traci I said hello! Glad to be of service, but kinda surprised to be of service in anything related to math! (high fiving self)
Delete