I am enjoying decorating my house for the holidays with snowflakes
this year. I like them for a few reasons. 1. They are white and go
with anything 2. They can be used all winter long. 3. I finally
learned how to make a decent looking one with the help of Pinterest.
Recently I was at the fabric store to buy some supplies for another project when I saw this yarn. It is called Spark-a-Doodle by Red Heart. It grabbed my attention. It was so unique – so I bought a skein. I do not know how to knit, but knew I would find a use for it someday.
Two days later – it struck – a snowstorm of an idea with my newly learned snowflake making skill – a no-sew version of the Pinterest inspiration – using the yarn, paper snowflakes and Aleene’s Tacky Dot Roll of Adhesive Dots. They are like hot glue, but are all ready to use. Paper crafters and scrap bookers use them often. I remember when hot glue and a glue gun became mainstream – it changed so much in the DIY world. Well, these Tacky Glue Dots from Aleene’s are in that category – as one of the greatest inventions ever. They make doing any project that requires glue of some sort –neat and easy! The best part – no glue gun burns or glue residue strings on your projects. I used the large size Tacky Dots to hang my snowflakes, but Aleene’s also makes small ones.
I found it was easier to attach the snowflakes to the pom-poms on the yarn when the yarn was hanging from the window. I mounted a tension rod to my window and tied 3 pieces of yarn from it that were the length of my window.
I spread the pieces across the window so the snowflakes would be centered in the window panes. You could add as many as you want to fill up your window.
The pom-poms on the yarn are spaced about 4-inches apart. I figured out where I wanted each snowflake to go and lined them up with the pom-poms on each piece of yarn. I attached a Tacky Dot on the snowflake where it would meet the pom pom. I found it easier to attach the dots to the snowflakes first and then the pom poms. I did a few where I attached the Tacky Dot to the pom-pom first, but it was harder to remove the Tacky Dot from the clear paper strip the Tacky Dot’s come on.
The directions say not to touch the dots with your hands as they may lose a little bit of their stickiness. I simply unrolled the strip of dots as I worked down each piece of yarn hanging from the window. I pressed the dot to the back of each snowflake and then rubbed over the clear sheet and then peeled the sheet away from the Tacky Dot. I then pressed the dot on the snowflake to a pom-pom. Most of the Tacky Dots came off very easily.
I positioned the snowflakes so there was at least one or two pom-poms on each snowflake. It was quite easy and took me less than 10 minutes for each window – I did two windows with the hanging snowflakes. This photo shows the pom-pom is centered on the back of the snowflake.
Here you can see there are 3 pom-poms. I used a Tacky Glue Dot on each pom- pom.
The snowflakes gently move around and the pom-poms look like little
snowballs. I love how my windows look. All ready for the holidays.
Thanks to the invention of Tacky Glue Dots – it was easy!
This folding technique is for every snowflake. The different shapes and designs happen when you cut into the folded paper triangle. To make different sizes use different size paper or cut the folded triangle down in size before cutting a design into it. I used plain 8-1/2” x 11” white copy paper to make my snowflakes.
1. You need a square piece of paper for a perfect snowflake. To make it fold your paper as shown. Cut off the section that is not overlapped.
2. Open up the paper and refold into a rectangular shape.
3. Find the center folded bottom edge and fold one side over from center mark.
4. Repeat on the other side – making sure all the edges are lined up.
5. Fold it over matching up edges.
6. Cut off the excess paper from the top to create a straight line making sure all the top edges are the same and you have a neat little triangle. Trim more if necessary to make sure everything is even.
7. Follow one of the designs in the diagram below and cut your folded paper using a sharp pair of scissors.
8. Carefully open it up. Voila! A pretty snowflake.
I used my new found knowledge, along with some unique yarn and Aleene’s Tacky Dot Roll of adhesive dots to make it look like it is snowing in my dining room. No sewing involved.
I have seen a similar version of this window treatment on Pinterest,
but they require you to sew the snowflakes together on a machine or use
fishing line to connect them. Way too hard – right now I can’t even
find my sewing machine under all the holiday decorations I hauled down
from my attic.
Recently I was at the fabric store to buy some supplies for another project when I saw this yarn. It is called Spark-a-Doodle by Red Heart. It grabbed my attention. It was so unique – so I bought a skein. I do not know how to knit, but knew I would find a use for it someday.
Two days later – it struck – a snowstorm of an idea with my newly learned snowflake making skill – a no-sew version of the Pinterest inspiration – using the yarn, paper snowflakes and Aleene’s Tacky Dot Roll of Adhesive Dots. They are like hot glue, but are all ready to use. Paper crafters and scrap bookers use them often. I remember when hot glue and a glue gun became mainstream – it changed so much in the DIY world. Well, these Tacky Glue Dots from Aleene’s are in that category – as one of the greatest inventions ever. They make doing any project that requires glue of some sort –neat and easy! The best part – no glue gun burns or glue residue strings on your projects. I used the large size Tacky Dots to hang my snowflakes, but Aleene’s also makes small ones.
The first step is to make snowflakes. I have included a
full tutorial on how to make pretty snowflakes at the end of this post.
Once you have all of your snowflakes cut out, press them with an medium
temperature iron to remove some of the fold lines.
On the more intricate snowflakes, I used a fabric
napkin as a pressing cloth so I would not damage any of the details on
the snowflakes.
Once the snowflakes were all pressed, I gathered them,
the yarn, and Aleene’s Tacky Dots and began to assemble the snowflakes
to hang.
I found it was easier to attach the snowflakes to the pom-poms on the yarn when the yarn was hanging from the window. I mounted a tension rod to my window and tied 3 pieces of yarn from it that were the length of my window.
I spread the pieces across the window so the snowflakes would be centered in the window panes. You could add as many as you want to fill up your window.
The pom-poms on the yarn are spaced about 4-inches apart. I figured out where I wanted each snowflake to go and lined them up with the pom-poms on each piece of yarn. I attached a Tacky Dot on the snowflake where it would meet the pom pom. I found it easier to attach the dots to the snowflakes first and then the pom poms. I did a few where I attached the Tacky Dot to the pom-pom first, but it was harder to remove the Tacky Dot from the clear paper strip the Tacky Dot’s come on.
The directions say not to touch the dots with your hands as they may lose a little bit of their stickiness. I simply unrolled the strip of dots as I worked down each piece of yarn hanging from the window. I pressed the dot to the back of each snowflake and then rubbed over the clear sheet and then peeled the sheet away from the Tacky Dot. I then pressed the dot on the snowflake to a pom-pom. Most of the Tacky Dots came off very easily.
I positioned the snowflakes so there was at least one or two pom-poms on each snowflake. It was quite easy and took me less than 10 minutes for each window – I did two windows with the hanging snowflakes. This photo shows the pom-pom is centered on the back of the snowflake.
Here you can see there are 3 pom-poms. I used a Tacky Glue Dot on each pom- pom.
How to Make a Paper Snowflake
I have tried for many years to make the perfect snowflake and have never had success, until now. I found a great snowflake making pattern diagram on Pinterest and I have become a “pretty” snowflake maker overnight.This folding technique is for every snowflake. The different shapes and designs happen when you cut into the folded paper triangle. To make different sizes use different size paper or cut the folded triangle down in size before cutting a design into it. I used plain 8-1/2” x 11” white copy paper to make my snowflakes.
1. You need a square piece of paper for a perfect snowflake. To make it fold your paper as shown. Cut off the section that is not overlapped.
2. Open up the paper and refold into a rectangular shape.
3. Find the center folded bottom edge and fold one side over from center mark.
4. Repeat on the other side – making sure all the edges are lined up.
5. Fold it over matching up edges.
6. Cut off the excess paper from the top to create a straight line making sure all the top edges are the same and you have a neat little triangle. Trim more if necessary to make sure everything is even.
7. Follow one of the designs in the diagram below and cut your folded paper using a sharp pair of scissors.
8. Carefully open it up. Voila! A pretty snowflake.
How to Cut the Design into Folded Paper to Create a Snowflake
Once the paper is folded. Hold the paper triangle as shown in the diagram below. Cut following the patterns to create different snowflakes. Once I got the hang of it – I was creating my own designs and not using this as a guide anymore.
Cutting diagram from Live Internet Ru
I made Trax a little something to play with so he would leave me alone when I was hanging the snowflakes.
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