How to Make Paper Snowflakes Into a Window Decoration

How do you decorate a window for Christmas? With paper snowflakes! Making a paper snowflake is easy to do and a wintery way to decorate your home for the holidays.

When you make multiple paper snowflakes they can even become after Christmas decor and stay up all winter long.

I made the paper snowflakes you see hanging in my entryway windows 10 years ago for the dining room windows in my previous house. After using them back then, I liked the way they looked and saved them when winter was over.

When thinking about a way to decorate my home’s entry for Christmas this year, I remembered the snowflakes I had saved.

I went in search of them in my decor stash. They were a little wrinkled, so I used a warm iron to press them flat so I could put them back into decorative service.

What to Use to Hang Decorations on Windows?

When using snowflake decorations at a window for Christmas you could use snowflake window clings that stick to the window or suction cups to attach decorative snowflakes, window decorations or to hang ornaments on windows – using but…

… a prettier way to attach window decorations or hang ornaments on windows is attaching them to a strand of yarn or ribbon and tying the strands on a tension-style curtain rod.

That is what I did 10 years ago and it worked beautifully to hang the snowflakes.

Reusing the snowflakes on the entryway windows, I no longer had the tension rods to hang the strands of snowflakes.

Instead I used a large glue dot at the top of each strand to hang the stands over the window to make it look like it is snowing outside.  No sewing involved.

They have been hanging up on the window for a few weeks so far – so I can attest that attaching a glue dot to the top of the strand works.

When it comes time to remove the 3 glue dots I used, I can simply spray the window with water to wet the dots and peel them off or use a razor blade scraper with no damage to the window.

How to Make Paper Snowflakes Hanging in a Window

Paper snowflakes can be made using any type of white paper. I used 8-1/2″ x 11″ computer paper since I had it one hand, but you could use scrapbook paper or construction paper to make a blizzard of snowflakes to decorate your windows.

Each of these papers are inexpensive which makes paper snowflake window décor a very budget friendly option for holiday decor.

If using regular yarn or ribbon to hang the snowflakes:  The pom-poms on the pom-pom yarn I used are spaced about 4-inches apart. If you are using regular yarn, make a knot in the yarn or ribbon every 4 inches and use the knot as the place to add the glue dot.

Using glue dots makes doing any project that requires glue of some sort –neat and easy!  No hot glue strands to deal with.

How to Fold Paper to Make a Snowflake

After reading through this easy paper snowflake tutorial, you will become a pro snowflake maker in no time.

The paper folding technique required to make a snowflake is the same for every snowflake you make. To create the different snowflake shapes and designs is done by the way you cut the folded paper with scissors.

To make different sizes of snowflakes – use different size paper or cut the folded triangle down in size before cutting a design into it. 

Step-by-Step Paper Snowflake Patterns

1.  You need a square piece of paper for a perfect snowflake. Fold your paper as shown above. Cut off the section that is not overlapped. Doing this will create a square piece of paper.

2.  Open up the paper and refold into a rectangular shape.

3.  Find the center of the 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 again, 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.

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 blue diagram below to create various designs in the folded paper.

1. Follow one of the snowflake pattern designs in the diagram below and cut your folded paper using a sharp pair of scissors.

2. Carefully open it up.  Voila!  A pretty snowflake.

Once I got the hang of cutting out snowflake designs – I was creating my own designs and not using this diagram as a guide anymore.

• You can find more pretty snowflake patterns in this post: How to Make Snowflakes Using Paper Doilies

How to Hang Paper Snowflakes In a Window

1.  Once you have all of your snowflakes made, press them with a medium temperature iron to remove some of the fold lines.

2. 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.

3. Once the snowflakes were 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 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 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 directions on the glue dots says 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. 

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.

My windows are now holiday and winter ready.

For more holiday decorating ideas, head on over to my holiday project gallery where you will find many affordable DIY holiday decorating ideas:

•  Christmas Project Gallery 

For more after Christmas decorating ideas browse this post:

• After Christmas Winter Decorating Ideas

You May Also Like:

• Holiday Table Setting: Snowflake Place Mats + Glittered Stemware
• How to Make Paper Snowflakes & Ornaments Using Doilies
• Christmas Mantel Decorating: Let It Snow
• Making It My Own: Pom Pom Basket