Custom Paper Snowflakes

Two years ago, in a snowflake-making frenzy, I decided to look up some tips on making prettier paper snowflakes. (This happened to be while Greg was writing his final paper for a class on Exodus. The above snowflake is Moses parting the Red Sea!) My previous, elementary hacking at paper triangles was successful, just not always the very loveliest in paper precipitation. I was surprised to learn that making really beautiful snowflakes with custom shapes, words and designs isn’t really any harder than making basic snowflakes — you just have to draw out a pattern, keeping a two things in mind: the pattern must touch both sides, and it must connect top to bottom.

Supplies:
Paper, cut into a square
Sharp, fine-pointed scissors
Pencil

1. Fold the right edge of the square over to the left edge making a tall rectangle.

2. Fold the bottom edge of the rectangle up to the top edge making a square.

3. Fold the lower left corner of the rectangle up to the top right corner forming a triangle.

4. In pencil, draw a pattern on the triangle. The long side of the triangle (on the left) and the side of the triangle on the right correspond to the spokes that will radiate out from the center of the snowflake, which is the lower right corner of the triangle. The top side of the triangle will be the outside edge of the snowflake. Remember: the pattern must touch both the left and right sides of the triangle and connect between them.