DIY Christmas Snowflake Decorations

Ho, ho, ho and welcome to the very first festively themed blog post of the year from this sparkly gal! I think we'd all like to admit (well those of us who like to see the glass half full, enjoy the little beauties of life and absolutely revel in the excitement of Christmas despite being over ten years old) that we are still very much a child at heart and joyously jump at the chance to have a dabble in a bit of good old arts and craft. If that is so, I think you will adore today's post. A little more on the lifestyle spectrum but perfect fun for all ages and abilities. Why making snowflakes of course! These are such simple yet beautiful decorations to create and I have fond memories of making as many as I possibly could each Christmas at my Nan's house. With just some paper and scissors or with an army of glitter and glue these paper snowflakes are simple and easy to make, with minimal fuss or intricate detail and which ever way they are brought to life they add a gorgeous drop of delicate detail to any Christmas abode!

Now I definitely didn't create the concept of paper snowflakes however if you'd like to know my wonderful and wacky personal steps to achieving these seasonal crafty paper gems then please keep reading and follow me into a glittery abyss!

What you will need:

The essentials - 

• Paper
• Scissors
• String
• A hole punch 

My chosen decorations (use whatever you fancy! Pasta if you like! [I'm with you fellow carb lovers <3])

• Silver glitter
• Gold glitter
• Pritt stick glue
• Silver paint (Poundland)
• Silver gems (Poundland)
• Gold and silver gel pens (Poundland)

Safety advise and other tips

• Supervise young children
• Keep decorations away from eyes (don't rub glitter into your eye balls my friends)
• Work in an air ventilated room when working with decorations like paint, glue and gel pens
• Handle sharp objects, like scissors with care
• Dangle and place your snowflakes in safe places away from fire or heat.
• Cover your work surface to avoid any extra decorating disasters
• Prepare to see glitter for the rest of your living days all around the house

Now to the snowflake making!

Instructions:

• Start by choosing your paper. I used A4 but cut into different sizes to create different sized snowflakes.
• Now, if not already square, fold over one corner of each of your pieces of paper to the opposite side of the sheet to create squares and cut away the excess paper left underneath.
• Up to here you should have all your pieces of paper cut into squares.
• For this part (the cutting) I will explain as though I am just making one snowflake, this way you can come back to this step each time you start cutting your next snowflake.
• Begin by folding your piece of paper in half, bottom to top, then fold in half again, this time from from side to side.
• At this point, hold the bottom corner that lies in the centre of the first fold you made. In other words, the corner that is at the end of the folded edge.
• Keep a hold of this corner from here onward.
• For the last fold, fold one corner of your square to the other opposite corner to make a triangle.
• At this point you are now ready to cut your snowflake into your own intricate design!
• The reason for keeping hold of that corner becomes crucial now so you can identify which will be the outer edges of your snowflake and which will be the inside patterns of your snowflake.
• The two adjacent folded edges to your special held corner should be where you will cut you inner patterns. The edge opposite you special held corner shouldn't have any folded edges and will be the outer edge of your snowflake.
• Now you have hopefully identified which edge is which you are reading to chop your snowflake!
• For a funky design try cutting each edge in different shapes, such as waves, circles, squares, lines and hearts. Also vary how far you cut into each edge. The most intricate and detailed snowflakes tend to be those that are cut the most and barely have much paper left so go wild and experiment!
• Once chopped, unfold your snowflake and lay it out flat. Hold it up as you want it to dangle and choose were you want to make the hole for your string.
• When chosen, simply hole punch your hole and that my friends is were it's down to you! Decorate you little snow gems as wild as you wish with colour, sparkles and anything you can dream of!

Once decorated I then left my snowflakes laid out to dry over night on a safe surface, like my dressing table. And now hopefully you should have a little collection of snowflakes too!

I am so smitten with how gorgeous my wee little snowflakes turned out and look dangling from my bunting. You really don't need any expert skills or even neat cutting and decorating skills to make these little beauties. Their beauty really does lie within their individuality! As always, but especially so with this post (because I'm so excited to see all your unique designs), I would love to see your snowflakes if you decide to recreate these and feel free to tweet or message me a picture of them! Festive thanks for reading you lovely person, it means the world to me and I greatly hope you enjoyed the post!

Ellie x