How to make paper snowflakes!

We seem to be heading for a 'White Christmas' this year but that's quite unusual here in the UK.

So for the past few years I've been creating our own 'White Christmas' by cutting out paper snowflakes and fixing them to the downstairs windows.


They are very easy to make and can be a way to keep excited children occupied in the run-up to Christmas when we grandparents and parents are particularly busy! As many schools have closed early because of the snow this year, this could be a particularly useful activity to keep boredom/over-excitement at bay!

You will need:

• some sheets of white A4 paper
• some scissors, suitable to the age of the child
• a small amount of Blutac for sticking the snowflakes to the windows. 

The trickiest bit is the folding to get the true haxagon shape and smaller children may need some help with this, though I've found older children surprisingly accurate with estimating the angles!

Snowflake Instructions:

1. Fold the sheet of A4 paper in half, either way, according to the size of the snowflake you wish to make.
2. Fold the right-hand corner over, as in diagram 2, making sure that angles 'a' and 'b' are as nearly equal as you can make them.
3. Fold the left-hand corner behind, as in diagram 3, keeping the edges of the triangle you have formed as close together as you can. 
4. Holding the pointed end together, cut straight across through all the layers from 'c' to 'd', leaving you with a triangular shape consisting of 6 layers of paper.
5. Still holding the layers together, cut any shape you like out of the edge that you just cut.
6. Cut a chunk out of the folded point of the triangle and then more chips and chunks out of the two folded sides, being careful not to cut all the way through to the first area that you cut out. If this does happen, it's not a disaster but you will just have some parts of your snowflake missing - as in real life!

Unfold the paper very carefully and flatten the snowflake as best you can before sticking to the window with tiny spots of bluetac -

 - and there you have your 

Instant White Christmas!