LET IT SNOW SNOWFLAKE TUTORIAL

P I N THIS
Christmas is on its way here and I cannot wait! I must admit I am totally one of those people that start decorating for Christmas before it
is even Thanksgiving. I am hoping that there is snow here in Michigan when we pick up our Christmas tree this year. If youve been
following me for a while you might remember my Christmas Tree Engagement session photographed by my now close
friend Leah Mullett. We waited and waited for snow and it never came, so we went with out it! Hopefully we will have some
snowflakes coming our way so I can have the snowy photos that Ive been craving.
I was in Grand Rapids last weekend meeting with a lovely bride to be, and since I was in town I stopped by tjmaxx to see what treasures
I could find. I came across some ornaments that were made out of some sort of wood that I loved. I took a photo of them & decided to
make my own bigger & more sparkly version.

My Christmas inspiration lately has come from the new lookbook by Ruche. It is filled with gorgeous winter layering ideas & lots of
sparkle. If you have never heard of Ruche you NEED to check them out, they have a beautiful bridal line and such a classic romantic
clothing line. & it is affordable!

P I N THIS
Okay, on to the tutorial!

Supplies:

Old book (preferably with gold edging)

Hot glue gun

wire or fishing string

Acrylic gloss sealer

Gold glitter

1.

Measure out 1 strips on your book. Use black inc. Decide how many pages thick you want your strips

Directions

& count out that number x2 when cutting your strips. ( I used 5 pages per strip so I cut 10 pages at a
time.)

2.

Leave the 1st strip full length. 2nd & 3rd cut 1/2inch off. 4th & 5th 1inch off. 6th & 7th 2inches off. I
didnt actually measure each time I used a piece of the cut paper as a template for each size. & go by
what ever length looks good for what your working with, you dont have to stick to my
measurements.

3.

Bend the strips in half and hold at the bottom to create a petal of your snowflake.

4.

Find something heavy to lay on the petal, it will help the shape of it curve inward.

5.

Hold the bottom of the snowflake petal very tightly while tying your wire or fishing string around the
end of it. Repeat steps 1-5 until you have 8 petals.

6.

Take a stack of paper strips and roll them together & tie them with wire or string.

7.

Hot glue the entire bottom of your petal. Try & get glue on every piece of paper, this will be what is
the binding to hold it all together. Once you have covered the bottom in hot glue place it on the roll of
paper & hold tightly until the glue has dried.

8.

Repeat step 7 & make a cross with the petals, then fill in the diagonal spots.

9.

Add extra glue to the edges (this is the only thing holding the entire snowflake together so dont be
stingy!).

10. Glue the edges of each petal together so they are more secure.
11. I didnt take photos of this But I did a coat of the Acrylic Gloss sealer over the entire snowflake to
give it a shine & let it dry. Then I sprayed a section of the edge of the snowflake & poured glitter onto
it. Continue around the entire edge until you have a gorgeous sparkly snowflake. Spray another coat
of the sealer over the glitter to secure it.

Step 1. Place a square of origami paper with the coloured side facing down. Fold it in half from side to side,
crease and unfold. Fold it in half from top to bottom, crease and unfold.

Step 2. Now fold it in half diagonally, crease and unfold. Repeat for the other diagonal.

Step 3. Fold all 4 corners in to the centre (the point where all your previous fold lines meet).

Step 4. Fold the top point down to the centre, and the bottom point up to the centre.

Step 5. Fold the bottom edge up to meet the top edge.

Step 6. Fold the piece in half from side to side, crease and unfold.

Note: Your first leaf piece is now complete.

Step 7. Repeat Steps 1-6 twice more, to make a total of three leaf pieces.

Step 8. Cut a 12/30cm length of craft wire, or sewing thread. Slide your bead(s) or button to the centre of the
wire/thread and twist/knot them in place.

Step 9. Hold the three leaf pieces together, with the wider edge of each at the bottom and the open ends at the
top.

Step 10. Place the wire/thread around the middle of the leaf pieces, with the bead/button centre at the top.

Step 11. Cross the ends below the pieces, then bring each end up over the bundle of pieces and back down to
the bottom. Twist/knot the ends together at the bottom.

Step 12. Choose a leaf to open out and fold the other leaves down out of the way. Bring the tip of the
leaf towards the centre so the leaf opens out into a diamond shape, and re-crease the leaf along the existing fold
line at each side of the diamond.

Step 13. Repeat Step 12 for the remaining 5 leaves, until they all stay open. Youll find they leave a gap on
each side, where the wire/thread falls.

Step 14. Look at the gap from the side so you can see the wire/thread between two of the leaves. Apply a small
dab of glue to one leaf, close to the wire/thread. Repeat for the gap on the other side.

Step 15. Press the pairs of leaves together and hold in place until the glue has dried.

Note:

You may also glue between the other pairs of leaves in the same way, but its not necessary.

Step 16. Trim the excess wire/thread, or leave the ends long so you can use them to attach the poinsettia
to something.

You will need 8 squares of paper per medallion. If youre printing your tea bag papers, cut them into squares,
otherwise assemble 8 squares of origami paper. You can use squares of any size; here Ive used 1.5 (3.8cm)
squares:

Note: As with all origami, this works best if you strongly crease each fold. You can do this with a bone folder, or
just by running your thumbnail along the crease of each fold before moving on to the next step.

Basic Unit
Glossary:

A mountain fold is made by folding the edges away from you (creating a mountain shape).

A valley fold is made by folding the edges towards you (creating a valley shape).

For each square, place it patterned side up (below, left). Mountain fold in half diagonally (below, right):

Open up and mountain fold along the other diagonal (below, left). Now valley fold the square in half (below,
right):

Open up again and, by pushing the edges of paper towards each other at the points marked by the arrows below,
youll start to fold the square down into a triangle along the creases youve just made.

The basic fold is now complete (below, left). Take 2 of your triangles and slot them together so the points are
interleaved (below, right):

Continue to add triangles to assemble the shape. They wont stay together unless you glue them down; you can
glue them as you go, or assemble them very carefully and then glue them all together at the end.

Heres the completed basic medallion:

Variant
For a more interesting variant, when youve completed the basic unit, mountain fold each of the two front points
of the triangle up to meet the top point. This will leave you with the triangle shape with a diamond shape on top.
Interleave the units as before:

By varying the order of assembly, you can create different patterns. In the photo below, the medallion on the left
is formed by interleaving one unit above, one unit below, around the circle. The medallion on the right is formed

so each unit is half over and half under the neighbouring units:

Its as simple as that!

Start by finding your plates or bowls to trace around. The diameter of my large salad bowl is
34cm (13.5 inches), and the smaller one is 21cm (8.25 inches). If your circles are much
larger or smaller you will have to adjust the size of your leaves accordingly. The diameter of
my finished wreath is 42cm 16.5 inches), which is a great size to hang on the door.

1. Place the large bowl upside down on the cardboard and trace around it.

2. Place the small bowl upside down in the centre of the circle youve just drawn and trace
around it.
3. Cut around the outside of the largest circle. Then cut across your circle, through the
centre until you reach the far edge of the small circle. Next cut across the line you just cut so
you now have a + in the centre of your circle. This just makes it easier to cut the small circle
out. Cut out the small circle so you end up with a donut shape. Join the open ends of the
donut back together with sticky tape. (of course if you have a craft knife and cutting mat
you could just cut around the two circles)
4. Draw a leaf shape about 12.5 cm (5 inches) long on a piece of paper, and cut it out to use
as a template. Because the tops and bottom of my leaves were different shapes I cut the
point off the bottom of the leaf so could easily see which end was the one to attach to the
cardboard. I used 64 leaves in total, of which 16 were white. The number of leaves you need
will vary slightly depending on how much you overlap your leaves.

5. Roll the bottom edges of the leaf together so they overlap and the sides curl up.
6. Staple the rolled leaf to the bottom, just off centre, of the wreath base so the open end of
the leaf is pointing out and down.
7 & 8. Continue rolling each leaf as you go, stapling them in position so they overlap the
previous leaf. They need to overlap and be placed close to each other so the cardboard base
and the staples arent visible. The leaves should be positioned so that they follow the curve
of the wreath base. The placing is fairly random, the leaves arent in rows. If you are using
an accent paper (like my white one) place one for every 4 -6 of the main colour leaves. Make
the colour placement random too.

Looking at the back of the wreath you can see that the staples attach the leaves to the center
of the cardboard ring, and the leaves fan outwards.

9. & 10. Continue stapling the leaves in place. I found it useful to stop often and hold the
wreath at arms length so I could see the overall shape that was being formed. Make sure the
tips of your leaves follow the curve of the wreath base.
When you have reached half way stop and go back to your original starting point. Now start
again from this point, facing your leaves the other way and going in the opposite direction
around the wreath. Make sure that you overlap the leaves at the starting point, so there are
no gaps. If this seems a bit too tricky you can always just continue on as you were all the
way around the circle so all your leaves will be facing the same way. Complete the circle of
leaves.
11. & 12. Tie a half bow in your ribbon so there is a small loop and one short and one long
end. Thread the long end behind in the leaves in the top centre of the wreath. Staple the
ribbon to the wreath.
The wreath is so light that it can easily be hung with Blu-Tac. I just put a blob each at the
top and the bottom of the wreath and one on the top of the ribbon.

And thats it. Using a stapler makes it pretty quick and easy. If youre going to give this a go
and any of the directions are unclear Im happy to answer any questions. I hope you have as
much fun making this as I did.

M A K E : : PATC H W O R K PAP E R O R I G A M I G I F T B O X E S

Last week I shared a tutorial showing how to make easy no-sew gift bags, so I thought Id
continue the theme this week and share another creative way to wrap with love. These
lidded origami gift boxes are based on a traditional Japanese design to which Ive added my
own patchwork paper twist.

To make each box youll need:

four squares of paper for the lid and four for the base
washi tape (any tape is fine, but washi is more forgiving if you make a mistake because its
easily removed and repositioned)

Turn the paper over and tape it together.

Fold the four corners into the centre.

Now fold two opposite sides into the centre, then open again. Make sure you crease the
folds well.

Now fold the opposite sides into the centre in the same way. Open them again.
Open two opposite sides right out.

Fold the two long sides up.

Take one end and fold it towards the centre. As you do this the box corners will fold
inwards.

Fold the triangular end down into the box base. Repeat these two steps with the other end
of the box.

Thats the box lid made.

To make the base start by sticking the four pieces of paper together with tape and then trim
about 3mm (one eighth of an inch) off each side of the square. Then follow the same steps
to make the base, which will fit neatly inside the lid.
The paper corners will sit neatly in the base and lid without needing to be secured, but you
can add a bit of fun there with a sticker.

LE VAN TOLTVE!!!!!

1. Cut your paper in half lengthwise, then fold into an accordion. I started by folding the paper in
half, then half again, so that there is an even number of pleats created.
2. Cut off one pleat to use as a template.
3. Squash the rest of the accordion together and staple in the center.
4. Draw your snowflake pattern on the template you created, and cut it out.
5. Trace the design on the stapled paper and slowly cut out your design.

Tip: Do not get too fancy with the design, unless you have monster hands or really sharp scissors,
as youll be cutting through several layers of paper.

>
6. Once you have the design cut out, carefully separate the pleats of the medallion, and tape the
separate ends together.
You now have your own 3D medallion snowflake!

I really liked designs that looked like a fishbone because it resulted in chevrons in the snowflake.