My kids and their buddy were so pleased with this idea for a nifty paper snowflake last winter, I’m posting the how-to here. Give it a try, and send me your awesome results! First you have to fold your paper for a snowflake. Anything but six-sided is just plain wrong, in my humble opinion, so here’s what to do.
Take an 8.5″x11″ piece of light weight paper. Fold it in half the “short” way. Start to fold in half again, but crease just the end of the folded edge to find the center. Then, using that point as a guide, fold the paper into thirds. I find that it helps to almost ‘roll’ the paper and slowly flatten it into thirds. At any rate, once you’ve got the correct angel (roughly 60 degrees) make a crease, and fold both sides in. Fold that V shape in half at the center. Then design your cuts, cut it out, and unfold.
In the picture, I’ve written my own name in a dark marker so it will show up in the photograph. In reality, I would very lightly pencil the design in. When you start to cut, make sure you’re keeping some of the folded edges intact so your paper snowflake will unfold properly and not just fall apart. Intricate designs may need to be done with an exacto blade, so I recommend keeping it simple at first so as to avoid frustration.
Last year’s nameflakes are gone, but we enjoy making these every year and will probably end up doing a few tomorrow. I will post the pictures then 🙂
Legend of Velda 
I made about 600 of these type of snowflakes for a church New Years Party. I fold them a little different. After making them I ironed them flat. The young women in our ward and I blew up white helium irridecent balloons and hung each snowflake singly from each balloon with different lengths of fishing line. We literally filled the gym ceiling. The ballons gave the effect that they were clouds. We added a few fresh cut trees on the sides and in the corners, some up lights and a little fog machine and it felt like we were outside in a park. The affect was dramatic and if I say so myself, totally cool. Hearing all the gasps when people walked in made my cramped hands feel better.
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I’ll bet that looked awesome! Did you get some help from the young women with the flake making? Was this a new years dance type thing for the youth, or did everyone get to enjoy it? I’m currently with the sunbeams 🙂 But if I ever get in a situation where I have to prepare for a big winter party, I do believe I’ll try just that. Only, I think I’d make everyone else help me with the paper snowflakes 😀
My sister and I once made several hundred snowflakes in various sizes to hang in the band room the year the American Fork Marching Band did "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" We didn’t iron them — I used old encyclopedias (of which my parents always had plenty) to flatten the flakes. We hung them by fishing line from the rafters, and the effect was really fun.
But I’ll be the movement of the helium balloons made your effect incredible.
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I’ll bet that looked awesome! Did you get some help from the young women with the flake making? Was this a new years dance type thing for the youth, or did everyone get to enjoy it? I’m currently with the sunbeams 🙂 But if I ever get in a situation where I have to prepare for a big winter party, I do believe I’ll try just that. Only, I think I’d make everyone else help me with the paper snowflakes 😀
My sister and I once made several hundred snowflakes in various sizes to hang in the band room the year the American Fork Marching Band did "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" We didn’t iron them — I used old encyclopedias (of which my parents always had plenty) to flatten the flakes. We hung them by fishing line from the rafters, and the effect was really fun.
But I’ll be the movement of the helium balloons made your effect incredible.
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My mistake, it was a Christmas party. It was for 12 and up and the dress was Sunday best or formals. It gave the girls a chance to wear their Homecoming, Prom dresses one more time or to trade with other people for the night. Every youth had a dance card with 1-10 on it and they had to ask the other youth for a dance. For instance, a boy might ask a girl if she had a dance for number 6. If she didn’t, then he would put his name on her card by number 6 and she would do the same on his card. During the night, they would call out a dance number and then they would find eachother. They had a blast. The adults got to visit and dance too and everyone enjoyed the great food.
I did all the snowflakes myself. My sister helped with some and my kids helped with a few. When the heat pump came on there was a slight sway to the flakes. It was nice. I use the iron for some unconventional things like to iron tissue paper when it gets crumpled in my closet, ribbon when I need to reuse it on a different project and of course money for gifts. I can’t imagine having to use the encyclopedias. I bet your band room looked great too. Who can resist the feel of a winter wonderland?
I went from YW back to Primary chorister. A definate change. It’s like putting on a show every week. Sunbeams must be fun. If it’s like my sisters wards (I have 3)in Utah, there’s several classes. I could go for Librarian.
Sorry this is long.
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Awe, I loved being chorister! Sunbeams are fun though. I’m in Utah, in an older area, so there’s one class and we just have 5, one of which lives with his grandparents. On holidays we tend to have more.
Are you going to go with the standard program songs? My current ward doesn’t. But when I was chorister in 2005, in June or so after my kids had learned all the songs (I told them they needed to have the words written in their hearts so they’d have them when they needed them) I made booklets for them to take home – they had all the song lyrics with the theme and scripture for that month, plus the articles of faith, and room for them to write their testimonies at the end. Each little 16 page booklet was made out of a single piece of paper, and I added cardstock covers to them and let the kids decorate them.
You can see the ones I did in ’05 here. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll make one for ’08 when I have a lull in design projects.
http://novapages.com/primar…
http://novapages.com/primar…
You print one on the front, one on the back of a paer, cut the paper into fourths, fold, and assemble. Just be sure to print them -without- resizing the pages. 😉
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Awe, I loved being chorister! Sunbeams are fun though. I’m in Utah, in an older area, so there’s one class and we just have 5, one of which lives with his grandparents. On holidays we tend to have more.
Are you going to go with the standard program songs? My current ward doesn’t. But when I was chorister in 2005, in June or so after my kids had learned all the songs (I told them they needed to have the words written in their hearts so they’d have them when they needed them) I made booklets for them to take home – they had all the song lyrics with the theme and scripture for that month, plus the articles of faith, and room for them to write their testimonies at the end. Each little 16 page booklet was made out of a single piece of paper, and I added cardstock covers to them and let the kids decorate them.
You can see the ones I did in ’05 here. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll make one for ’08 when I have a lull in design projects.
http://novapages.com/primar…
http://novapages.com/primar…
You print one on the front, one on the back of a paer, cut the paper into fourths, fold, and assemble. Just be sure to print them -without- resizing the pages. 😉
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We are going with the recommended songs in Primary. I try to add a few more in when I can. This month we learned "I am a Child of God". We will sing v.1 and 2, then the congregation will sing the third and the Primary kids will sing the descant over the top and the fourth verse (which is rarely sung) will be sung acapella and the piano will join in on the chorus. Last year in addition to the regular songs I taught all 13 Article of Faith songs. Needless to say, our program ran over a bit.
At Christmas we did a special musical number with the YW. The Primary kids sang the first verse of "Silent Night", the YW sang the second and the congregation sang on the third. The unexpected was that I had written a descant for the third verse. The Primary and YW sang that. The kids sounded like angels. I had goose bumps:)
The booklet is a great idea. You are so clever. I love how you put it – they need to have the words written in their hearts so they will remember them when they need them. I am having a problem looking at the file but I will keep trying. It’s a great idea.
I live in WA state in the country (on a farm, the kind with crops, not animals, well we have a couple dogs). There are a lot of members here. We have 2 wards and a branch. (Considering we don’t even have a Post Office.) Before we split I had 198 kids in Primary now I am down to about 100. It feels like a ghost town. When I talk to my sisters in UT they talk about how big their wards are. I can’t imagine. My mother moved to American Fork and then went on a mission to Nauvoo. Every new block there is a new ward. That is amazing.
Thanks for your idea.
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