Snow Day Decorating Inspiration

Paper snowflakes – there could not be a more perfect family activity today at our house.  The first measurable snow fall this season – which is momentous since we live near Chicago! – is turning our outside world white.  And what better way to spend our cozy afternoon (after putting on all the gear and romping in the snow, of course) than crafting together and making the inside as beautiful as the outside.

Until a few days ago, I hadn’t made a paper snowflake since about the second grade.  I admit that I had to do a little googling to refresh my memory.  In case you are like me, just follow these steps and you’ll be paper-crafting a la Will Ferrell in Elf in no time!

Grab your rectangle piece of paper and fold the bottom right corner up to match the opposite edge.

Save your rectangle if you have little ones!

Use your scissors to cut off the extra part, so all you have left is a square that is folded into a triangle.  If you have little ones who aren’t able to cut snowflakes very well, have them cut and color those extra rectangles to participate :).  At the end of the post, I will show you how my little ones contributed.

Now, fold your larger triangle in half to form a smaller triangle with the opening on top.

Now, the next couple folds you will need to kind of guesstimate.  With the openings at the top, fold one third of your triangle over to cover the middle third and crease.

Fold the last third over on top of the other two thirds.

Cut off the little paper tails sticking out the top from the thirds you folded over.  And this is why pictures are helpful :).

It should look like the picture above if you have done everything correctly.  If not, it’s just paper – start over.With a decent pair of scissors, cut designs into both sides of your triangle.  Just remember not to cut all the way across.

And that opened up to become – THIS!!  Easy, right?  And those rectangle scraps that the littles colored?  Cut them into strips and use them to hang up the snowflakes!  Now everyone helped to create something lovely to decorate the home.  It really needed something special since the Christmas tree went away, didn’t it?

See our colored hanger?

Enjoy your snow day!