a quick, free, holiday *spruce up yur shack* project

I linger on the twitter. I am never without inspiration that way, you see. Enter: this post. The other day Rene (aka @ffantastica and blogger http://fruityfantastica.tumblr.com/ ) mentioned on the twitter that she and her girl (her beloved 10 year old daughter) were cutting out paper snowflakes. BAM. True Morag Gunn *Memory Movie Bank* stuff. I remember sitting at the dining room table making snowflakes throughout my childhood. I remember the concentration and focus of making those mysterious folds, then the intricate cuts, the wonder and excitement leading up to the unfolding of each and every one. Awaiting to see what unique form I had created. Why did I stop? I loved that feeling. No reason. Adulthood, perhaps? No reason.
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The next day I started randomly checking through some of my fave online sites for inspiration. Not snowflake inspiration, just some sort of Project inspiration. Naturally I stumbled upon a post on how to make snowflakes and that got this going. I sent the link to Ms. Rene for her and her daughter to add to their inspiration file, and kept digging. Soon enough I had accumulated the instructions for a variety of patterns for 5 and 6 sided snowflakes. Then I gave in.

I gathered some magazines that I knew would have some pretty coloured pages and started folding and snipping away. Smallish, sharp scissors are best. The first few were a challenge, I must admit. But once I got the folding down I plopped myself on my dining room bench, threw a holiday movie on the laptop and away I went. I found the easiest way to keep it neat and not lose my mind in magazine cuttings was to first go through all the magazines and pull out the pages I wanted. Then I got rid of the magazines. I also made sure to have something to throw all the cutting and scraps into as I went. Theses accumulate quickly and the chaos soon makes me cranky so this works best for me. After completing many, I decided to attach them all in a grouping on the back of my front door with simple invisible tape. Ok, here are my results:

Please refer to these great links for step-by-step instructions and design ideas!

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How About Orange has a great five-sided snowflake blogpost here:

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-make-5-pointed-paper-snowflakes.html

Allison Gryski blogged about the amazing options of six-sided snowflakes in two spots!:

http://allison.gryski.com/2010/11/tutorial-paper-snowflakes-with-6-sides.html
http://allison.gryski.com/2010/12/lacy-paper-snowflake-tutorial-and.html

Hope you are all well and getting through the dark days of the year. Only 8 more until the days get longer!

Keep on keepin' on,

♥ leel