How To: DIY Paper Snowflake Garland

I love paper crafts. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Every year I make some paper snowflakes as part of my Christmas decorations, and it amazes me how many of my friends and people I know don't have a clue how to make them. What did you do with your childhoods?! Usually I just blu-tack my snowflakes to the windows, but this year I did something a little bit different so I thought I'd share a little DIY of how to make paper snowflake garlands. These ones are actually hung up over the windows in the living room (see this Instagram snap) but it was impossible to photograph them there, so they've temporarily relocated to the bedroom wall - I quite like them here too though, might have to make some more!

You Will Need:
White paper (or any colour)
Scissors
Pencil
White thread
Sellotape

How To:
If you're a beginner, it's probably slightly easier to start off with a circular shape (however this creates 4-pointed snowflakes and I prefer 6-pointed ones). Draw around something round like a bowl or mug, cut out the shape and then fold it in half. Fold it in half again, then in half once more, so it'll be divided into eighths. For 6-pointed snowflakes, the folding technique is slightly more complicated, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy...


1. For this you'll need a square of paper. Either draw round something square, or fold an A4 piece of paper in half, fold one of the corners in to meet the middle, and then trim off the excess at the top. Unfold the paper, cut down the line in the middle, and you'll be left with two large squares (save the bit you trimmed off as you can use it to make smaller squares).


2. Take the square and fold it in half diagonally to make a triangle.
3. Fold it in half again to make a smaller triangle.
4. Now comes the slightly more complicated part, you kind of just have to do this by eye but once you've done it a couple of times you'll easily get the hang of it. Take the right side of the triangle and fold it in towards the middle, just past the centre point of the triangle.
5. Take the left side of the triangle and fold it in towards the centre, on top of the right side, so both the edges line up. Try to do this as neatly as possible so the snowflakes end up being symmetrical. It doesn't matter if it's a liiiittle bit off (like in this example, oops!) but try to get the lines as sharp as possible.


6. Take your scissors and snip off the top of the triangle, at an angle, making sure you cut past the lowest point of both the sides of the triangle.
7. Now you can create your pattern. I usually just do it freehand and cut out random triangles, lines and circles. Just make sure you don't cut across completely from one side to the other, otherwise your snowflake will fall apart. Or if you fancy drawing on a pattern first, just use a pencil to mark out where to cut (have a search on Google or Pinterest for pattern ideas or just make up your own).


8. Once you've cut out all the bits you want, unfold the paper and you should be left with a snowflake shape. Yay!



9. Repeat the process with a couple of different sizes of squares to create a bunch of unique snowflakes.
10. Now take your thread and measure out the length you'll need for whichever windowframe/mirror/wall you want to decorate. Lay out the thread on a table and place your snowflakes on top, making sure to spread them out equally.
11. Take a piece of sellotape and stick the thread to the back of the snowflake. Repeat until you've attached all the snowflakes, and made enough garlands to fill your area to be decorated.
12. Depending on what kind of surface you're attaching the garland to, either use sellotape to stick the ends down, or tie a little loop at the end of the thread and use a drawing pin to attach it to the wall.



And we're done! Super simple, and once you've got the basic technique of making snowflakes mastered, the possibilities are endless. I like hanging the garlands vertically, and leaving the bottom unattached to anything so they twirl around slightly in the breeze. You could also hang the garlands horizontally; they'd look great draped across the top of a mirror.

Is making paper snowflakes a Christmas tradition for you?

Gillian x