Early in our relationship, my partner and I decided to get a Christmas ornament each year. We don't like buying the Christmas
ornaments that you find in stores. It seems to me that all the
collections available are cheaply made in China. The glitter is more in
the box than on the baubles, Santa's eyes are drawn on his forehead and
angels have dubious things hanging from their backs, that definitely
don't look like wings. We like to buy from small businesses or independent vendors at craft shows or online, but we're also learning how to make Christmas ornaments from scratch.
Making a paper snowflake was a simple and fun project done while we were
watching TV. I remember doing this paper project when I was in
kindergarten, so it really is easy. The most difficult part might be
picking the right book to butcher, if you choose to use book pages
instead of regular paper. I did, so I picked Jerry Seinfeld's Seinlanguage. Jerry wouldn't mind, and all the jokes are in his shows anyway, so I felt the sacrifice was minimal.
What you need:
3 book pages for every snowflake
sewing thread
a needle
scotch tape
scissors
patience
1. Take a page out of a book.
2. Fold it accordion-style.
3. Cut the ends into little hearts or stars (optional, but it looks nice).
4. Fold it in half.
5. Make two more, following steps 1-4.
6. Tie three folded pages in the middle with regular sewing thread or a thin ribbon.
7. If the snowflake doesn't stay "open" (this depends on the
paper), use scotch tape to attach the separate pieces of paper at the
ends. You can also use double-sided tape.
8. We used a needle and thread to attach the snowflakes together.
If you're making just one snowflake, you can leave the thread long and use it to hang the snowflake on
the Christmas tree. We made three flakes and put them up on a wall. As you can
tell, it was really dark when we finished. Which means it was probably
4:30 pm in Pennsylvania.