diy paper snowflakes

1. Start out with a square piece of paper. You can use square origami paper or follow these easy steps for making a square from any rectangular piece of paper. Try not to use thick or heavy paper as it may be difficult to fold and cut.

2. Fold the square diagonally in half.

3. Fold the resulting triangle along the middle to come up with a smaller triangle.

4. The most crucial and perhaps the trickiest step in making a paper snowflake is dividing the triangle into three equal sections. The most accurate way to do this is to use a protractor to divide the angle at the triangle's apex (the corner opposite the longest side) into three sections, each with a 30-degree angle. If you don't have a protractor, you can estimate the size of the sections as you do Steps 5 and 6.

5. Once you've marked out the three equal sections, fold the left section towards the front.

6. Similarly fold the right section towards the front.

7. Flip the entire shape over so that the side with the horizontal edge is facing front.

8. Cut along the horizontal edge so that you come up with a wedge.

9. While keeping the wedge folded, cut out random shapes out of the edges.

10. Carefully unfold the paper to reveal your paper snowflake. Like real snowflakes, your paper snowflake has a 6-point or 6-sided symmetry.

In nature, no two snowflakes are exactly the same. Try making different shape cut-outs in Step 9 to come up with your own unique snowflakes.

Check out more paper snowflake instructions for:
4- and 8-Sided Snowflake - though real snowflakes have 6 sides or points, try making 4- and 8-sided paper snowflakes just for fun!
Paper Snowflakes with Printable Patterns - check out eleven templates that you can print out and easily cut and fold into beautiful paper snowflakes.