Snowflake Curtain + FREE Printable Template

I'll be the first to admit, I had literally ZERO Christmas spirit and zero interest in decorating until I got a house and a Pinterest account.  Last year, Dude and I hit up the after-Christmas sales and bought our first Christmas tree, lights, outdoor lights, the whole shebang!  But I put everything up and thought we could use a little something extra in our dining room.

Some of the people I follow on Pinterest pinned some super cute paper snowflake templates and projects (here, here, and here), I got inspired and decided to make a window of snowflakes!

hi everybody, love dude  (see what happens when you leave your laptop on the couch??)

Ok, so let's decorate your windows with snowflakes!

First things first, download and print my free printable paper snowflake template.  It has 6 pages - one page with labeled folding lines and instructions, one page with just folding lines and 4 pages of cut-able templates to help get you started.  For all you perfectionists out there, once you start to branch out and cut your own designs, remember that you can't really mess up this project.

Alright, once you have the template printed, gather the rest of your supplies:

• Cute Junk I've Made 6-Pointed Snowflake Template
• Paper cutter
• Scissors, big and small
• Scrapbook paper (optional)
• Dental floss (yep)

Start with page one of the template and cut out the square just inside the black lines.  I like to start by cutting it out with scissors first and then come in with the paper cutter to get close to the outside lines.

Paper Cutter

Ready to Fold

First fold the square in half, along Line A, keeping the labeled lines on the top.

Now fold the pyramid in half, along line B, again keeping the labeled lines on the top.

Now you're going to fold the triangle into thirds.  It's not essential that your lines line up perfectly here.  Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't, depending on how straight you cut your lines and how straight your folding was.

Fold first along Line C.

Fold for the last section overtop of the Line C section to create a final product that looks kind of like an arrow or a wonky paper airplane.

Flip your arrow over and cut off the tips.

Now all you've gotta do is cut out your designs!  If you're using my templates - I think this goes without saying, but just in case - cut out the grey sections.

If you feel like it, grab some pretty scrapbook paper and print out the template on the back or just eyeball it.  Scrapbook paper is already a square (12"x12"), so that makes it easy to fold without the template.

And now, cut as many of them as you want.  I'll be honest, I cut out what feels like a bajillion of these things and I still haven't figured out the mechanics of the folded snowflake. I can't tell you where your cuts will show up or what they'll look like when you open up the folds.  Think of it as a fun surprise!

When you've got a big old pile of snowflakes

And a big old pile of scraps

Start stringing your snowflakes onto dental floss, fishing line, string, whatever you have on hand. 

 

Now hang it up and admire your handy work!

Hold up, you're not done yet!  Keep stringing snowflakes until you're happy with how it looks or until you run out of cut snowflakes.

Helpful hint:  Once you hang up these strands of snowflakes, make sure to cut off any extra string at the bottom.  Otherwise, your cute little dog may think it's a toy made just for her and rip the whole dang thing down!  This may or may not have happened 4 minutes after I finished this project.

Linking Up To:



Background Noise for This Project:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season Three: Episode 16 & Episode 17