I am participating in the 3rd Annual Holiday Ornament Swap, which is hosted by cake & pie and freshlyblended. I finished my ornaments up this weekend, ahead of schedule, and I thought I’d share a how-to with you.
I am a snowflake fiend. Seriously! Every year around this time I decorate all of our windows with snowflakes that I cut out while hibernating in front of the boob tube. You can see some from last year here. Mr. Indie Fixx calls them ‘over achiever’ snowflakes, but whatever…I think he is just jealous of my extreme kirigami skill. 😉 I get very creative with my snowflakes and they are generally more snowflakesque than literal translations of the snowflake…I sure do have fun though!
Anyway, I just knew that I had to make some snowflake ornaments for the Ornament Swap and put together a little how-to as well. I hope you enjoy and please share your results over at the Indie Fixx Tutorial Tuesday Flickr Group.
How to Make Jen’s Snowflake Ornaments!
Materials:
8 1/2″ x 11″ copy paper (or other lightweight paper)
Cardstock
Scissors
Ruler
Ribbon
Hole Punch (or eyelet & eyelet tool)
Ribbon (or something else to hang your ornament)
Pinking Sheers (or a rotary cutter)
1. Make an 8 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ square from a sheet of lightweight 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper.
2. Fold your square into fours (in half and then in half again).
3. Cut along the folds, so you end up with 4 squares.
4. Take one of the little squares and fold it half to make a triangle.
5. Take the rightmost point and fold it up towards the top point. Then do the same with the left point, so you end up with another square.
6. Now, fold that square in half along the inner edge of the triangle flaps. You end up with another triangle…the canvas for your snowflake.
7. Go to town cutting out your snowflake. Hold onto to the “thick point” of your triangle. This will be the middle of your snowflake. Remember not to get too carried away or you will end up cutting through your snowflake and it will be just like when you made that paper doll chain in elementary school, but you ended up with a bunch of separate dolls instead of a chain (okay, maybe that was me).
8. Once you have a snowflake that you are satisfied with (no one cares how many you had to make to get that one perfect one…we’ve all been there in spirit with you), Mod Podge it to some decorative cardstock. I used matte Mod Podge and I applied some of the Mod Podge to the paper first, then placed my snowflake and hit the whole thing with some more Mod Podge. I also used one of the disposable foam brushes to apply it.
9. Go make some hot chocolate while you are waiting for your project to dry…about 30 minutes.
10. Once your snowflake is dry, cut it out with some pinking sheers or a rotary cutter (I prefer the sheers. Rotary cutters and I don’t get along).
11. Make a hole with your hole punch, or use an eyelet setter if you want to get all fancy, attach some ribbon & voila you’re all done! Decorate your whole house!
Here’s my snowflakes all wrapped up with a bow to send out to my swap partners. I hope they like them!
Thanks, Diana!
Very gorgeous! I really love your packaging, so creative. I need to get going on my homemade gifts, time is flying by.