How to Make REAL SnowFlakes

As an art teacher, I find that many of my students do not know the real way to make snowflakes. Often we find them making square snowflakes with mostly triangles out of them!

Sorry these pics aren't great, but I had a little fun with Flickr and Picnic graphics to help with the tutorial below.

STEP 1: Start with a piece of copy paper and fold the corner up. The thinner the paper, the better! Tissue paper can rip easily, but the results are still quite beautiful!




STEP 2: Fold up the second corner.



STEP 3: Cut off the excess at the top. You now have a square that is folded in fourths (the triangle in pic.)



STEP 4: This triangle needs to be folded into thirds. Why are we folding fourths into thirds? Because snowflakes have 6 points and the points are symmetrical halves. So, technically, when you open the triangle, you'll see twelfths.

Start by folding in the left side.



STEP 5: Then, fold the right side over it.



STEP 6: Cut off the excess paper at the top. I tell my students to cut off the "bunny ears" at the top. They are left with an ice cream cone in their hands.




STEP 7: Draw a pretty design. There's nothing wrong with sketching your design with a pencil first. Since the snowflake is folded, it's best to draw half shapes on the creases. Half circles and hearts are quite easy to draw. The more details you draw, the more delicate the snowflake will become, and the harder it will be to cut out. If you draw a line directly across the snowflake, you will end up cutting it in half.



STEP 8: Cut out your design carefully!



STEP 9: Open your snowflake carefully, and enjoy!




DISPLAY YOUR SNOWFLAKE: Snowflakes can be taped to windows and mirrors. Hang them from pretty ribbon. Glue to construction paper or pretty cardstock paper. Add glitter. ETC! Have fun!

Thanks for reading!
Hugs,
Renee