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How to Make Paper Snowflake Ornaments and Patterns

Adorn your Solstice tree with an avalanche of snow white or colorful scherrenschnitte, paper snow flake ornaments. Transform your abode, office cubicle or mountaintop chalet into a winter wonderland. These snowflake patterns are perfect for making tons of ornaments and decorations for your Yule tide and winter holiday season festivities. Creating snow flakes in paper form is an art form that can be a simple and basic craft activity for youngsters and beginners or as imaginative and fantastic as a fine art display.

Research the Internet, libraries and book stores to discover for yourself the fascinating photographs of natural and manufactured snowflakes, plus with photographs taken by Wilson Snowflake Bentley here in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Snowflake Links and other facsinating facts about this tiny miracle snowflake. Make up your own designs to create a paper snowflake design that would resemble a real, life snowcrystal. There are about 70 of these natural flakes in this collection of nearly 400 snowflake patterns.

Easy to Make Snowflake Decorations

The First Step, Templates and Frosty MiniFlakes link to the easiest patterns for beginners. I believe these designs contain cuts simple enough for very inexperienced or beginning level artists to grasp. Never fear, if these fail to please there are 400 color book versions ready and waiting to fill the void.

For really wild and decorative snowflakes, print the patterns on flat sheets of colorful http://www.papergiftwrap.com. Our site gift Wrap has hundreds of colorful printables perfect for the job.

Snowflake Patterns to Fold and Cut

To give your finished snowflake a translucent appearance, lightly dab one side with lemon oil and allow to dry on news paper.

Most of these designs are easy to cut out with child-sized scissors. Many were patterned using historic photographs of actual snowflakes. A few designs are virtually impossible to cut out and will require X-Acto knives or other scecialized tools.

Many of the natural looking paper snowflake patterns were inspired by Wilson Bentley, "The Snowflake Man" photographs as guides. These images are on display in The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration!

Snowflakes come in more than just the 6-sided variety but you probably have figured that out already if you've spent any time on this site ;-) Click to learn more about the Science of Snow and Ice Crystal formation.