Paper Snowflake Tutorial and Template

six pointed paper snowflake

I’ve been making these paper snowflakes for as long as I can remember and I never get tired of cutting these pretties. I know that some people are a bit intimidated by the folding required to create the six-pointed shape so this year I decided to make a snowflake folding template that will hopefully make that easier. Then you can get creative about the cutting! All the directions are printed on the pdf with numbered, dotted lines for where you fold. Here are some photos of the process. So if it isn’t snowing where you live, make your own snow!

paper snowflake folding 1 paper snowflake folding 2 paper snowflake folding 3 paper snowflake folding 4 paper snowflake folding 5 paper snowflake cutting example 1 finished paper snowflake 1

You can do this with ordinary copier/printer paper but it is easier to cut if you use something thinner. If you fold precisely then you will find that at step three you have a tiny bit extra sticking out of both sides. This is intentional. It accounts for the thickness of the paper when you make the final fold. Start out by cutting out simple triangles from alternating sides. I like to cut so that the bridges of paper left in between are the same width. After you unfold your creation you can press it in a book or carefully run a warm iron over it to minimize the fold lines.

If you make a paper snowflake you really like, preserve it by laminating it. I use Therm-o-Web Iron-on Vinyl which looks a lot like good old contact paper but is thinner and you seal it in seconds with a warm iron. Just trim around the outside edge with scissors. We like to tape these to a window.

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5 comments

  1. Kiki’s avatar

    I learned how to do this in 6th grade–did you? Ms Skebeck taught us to cut snowflakes and then we made stained glass windows with black paper covering the windows and snowflake holes filled with tissue paper. As I think about it now, I’m not quite sure how that worked! But we’d turn off the lights at 11 or 12 when the sun came out in Keflavik and enjoy the beauty.

    Last year I folded paper and Ben had his gerbils chew the edges in cool patterns. Then we hung them in the windows with blue tissue paper backing them. So pretty.

    1. Cindy’s avatar

      I think my mother taught me. You had the crafty teacher, I remember you guys were always doing stuff like that. Ms. Sandoval was not crafty, lol, we read a lot.

    2. Michele’s avatar

      HI! Naomi forwarded this to me after I admired her flakes! I just told a friend of mine about this blog who is a teacher at Imagine Learning Center and she said they make them with large white coffee filters. She also uses food dye to make “tie dye” circles on the filters – lets them dry over night and then cuts the falkes out and they look brilliant! Jerry Garcia flakes!

    3. livnletlrn’s avatar

      ‘dem’s some mighty pretty snowflakes! When we went to Portugal for xmas in 2001 (my dad died on xmas day 2000, so we decided this would be a good change of pace), we brought home all the royal blue paper napkins from our xmas eve restaurant dinner. We cut them into snowflakes, using this awesome folding method, and hung them on the curved white fireplace and walls of our condo. Borrowed a 3 ft. tall triangular potted shrub for the night and hung a half dozen ornaments on it, having brought those from home. Used the toaster oven to bake Santa’s cookies from a little log of dough Scott brought in his suitcase. Opened a few gifts in the morning, then spent much of the day exploring the beaches, cliffs, and rock formations. Thanks for bringing back such good memories!

    4. Naomi’s avatar

      Oh! That folding was so hard to get my head around. My girlies are all excited. Now I’m being tasked with making more. Thank you! (Just emailed you my 1st attempt.)

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