Thursday, December 13, 2012

Snowflake Curtain + FREE Printable Template

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial | Cute Junk I've Made

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??)

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Finished Paper Snowflake Curtain

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:

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - scissors, template, floss, scrapbook paper
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 Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Cut out paper snowflake template - on paper cutter
Paper Cutter
Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Ready to Fold
Ready to Fold
First fold the square in half, along Line A, keeping the labeled lines on the top.

Paper Snowflake Curtain - Fold 1

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

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Fold 2

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.

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Fold 3

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.

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Fold 4

Flip your arrow over and cut off the tips.

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Cut Ends

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.

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Templates & Cut Outs


Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Template 1 folded, cut out and final product

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Template 2 folded, cut out and final product

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Template 3 folded, cut out and final product

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Template 4 folded, cut out and final product

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.

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Scrapbook paper free-hand

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

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - bajillions of snowflakes

And a big old pile of scraps

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - scraps

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

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Snowflake on Dental Floss
 
Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Snowflake on Dental Floss, taped

Now hang it up and admire your handy work!

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - First Strand Hung Up

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.


Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Finished Product Close Up

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Finished Product Entire Window

Paper Snowflake Curtain Tutorial - Finished Product Entire Window

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:
Photobucket


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

3 comments:

Sorry for the word verification, but spammers are driving me nuts!!

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