Paper Snowflakes!

CAUTION:  Dangerously awesome paper snowflake pics!!! (Keep scrolling to the end)

Last week, within two minutes, two teachers asked me how to make snowflakes.  About an hour later, another asked.  After the third time, I got suspicious.  I asked her what was going on and if they had a meeting talking about my snowflakes.  She laughed and said they hadn’t, but that they all must have gotten curious at the same time, and wanted some classroom decoration.

I looked online for a tutorial to help them, but the only one I found showed making a 6-sided snowflake.  That’s cool, but I’ve always made 8-sided.  I know that really it’s supposed to be 6, but I do things my own way… I march to the beat of a very off rhythm drum…

So, here is my tutorial.  The end has a showcase of some of my all time faves!

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Step 1:  You will need a perfect square.  To do this, make a 90* angle and remove the bottom portion.

Step 1

Step 2:  Once you have cut the bottom off, this is what you will have left.

Step 3:  Fold the paper in half.

Step 3

Step 4:  Fold it in half again.  Now you have a tail.

Step 4

Step 5:  Cut the tail off.  If you cut it straight across you end up with an octagon.  I recommend doing something more fun with the end.  This not only cut off the bottom tail, it also cut into the edge.

Step 5

Step 6:  Cut into the sides.  Make sure not to cut it all the way apart.  Get creative!  You can make circles, half circles, triangles, hearts, and really any shape imaginable here!  The more detailed the shape, the more awesome your snowflake will be at the end!

Step 6

Step 7:  Unfold your snowflake and uncover your master piece!  I usually try to stick with one kind of design- either mostly triangle-like cuts or mostly circle-like cuts.  This one used both.

Wow!  You made it this far!  Are you ready for some totally awesome snowflakes???  The top two are my favorites!

So…  What do you think?  Which is your favorite?
Krystal*

It’s beginning to look a lot like Halloween… or not.

Wednesday will be my fifth Halloween in rural Alaska.  Halloween is a big deal out here.  All of the kids dress up and trick or treat.  The mischief genius ones hit up teacher housing two or more times.  I have caught them doing so many times!  Last year we had over 250 trick or treaters!

We have a costume parade at school at the end of the school day.  The audience judges the costumes based on applause.  Joey and I have won 2nd and 3rd place in the past.  We lost to a couple of Eskimos dressed as Eskimos last year.

We plan our costumes over the summer, as costumes and materials used to make costumes are often very difficult to obtain out here.  Plus, we really enjoy making our own unique costumes.  I can’t wait for Wednesday to show off our awesome costumes!

We usually go home for Christmas, so we do not decorate our Alaskan apartment.  Instead, I like to do a little decorating for Halloween.  In the past, I have decorated all of the windows.  This year, I decided to stick with the entryway and kitchen windows.  The BOO was made out of clothes hangers a few years ago. The blue light is a high efficiency bulb from Home Depot.  I wanted a red one (Woo Pig Sooie), but Joey said it was not the red light district, so Mountaineer blue it was!  I’m sure some kids might be scared, but hopefully most will enjoy our festive decorations.  Now all we need is spooky music and sounds!

Lights in the kitchen window

This is the half moon window on our door. It is actually a blue light, but is still creepy!

The entry way window with crime scene tape, broken blinds, spider webs, and the blue light glowing. I used the flash to show it off better.

We are all decorated, have costumes and candy, and are completely ready for the big day, except… there is no SNOW!  I have so many memories of watching children run through snow to get to our house.  Having to shovel the porch immediately after school has also been a common activity.  This year, we have gotten snow twice, but each time it has melted off.  I guess it would be nice to begin November without snow, it wold just be very different, as it has never happened to us before!