Paper Snowflake Maker
Cut the folded paper with your finger, watch it open, then print the template and cut a real one.
Ready patterns
To cut your own: press and drag round the part to cut away (it closes itself), or tap the corners one by one and tap the first corner again. Draw on the folded wedge or straight onto the snowflake. Cuts that reach past the paper's edge cut nothing there, just like scissors.
How to make a paper snowflake
- Pick or draw a pattern. Start from a ready pattern or cut your own on the folded wedge. The status line under the snowflake says whether it is still one piece.
- Print the template at 100% (“Actual size”). “1 large” is drawn for a 21 cm square, the biggest square an A4 or Letter sheet gives you: fold one corner down to the opposite side and cut off the strip. “4 small” prints four wedges for 10 cm squares, handy for a class.
- Fold the square: corner to corner into a triangle; then, from the middle of the long folded edge, fold the left third over and the right third behind so the edges line up at 60 degrees; then fold that cone in half. You now hold a thin 30 degree wedge, 12 layers thick.
- Cut: clip the cut-out template onto the wedge, point to point, and cut through every layer along the black lines. The shaded parts fall away. Trim the open edge last.
- Unfold from the point outwards, slowly, and press it under a heavy book.
The page computes the real paper: a cut on the wedge is repeated 12 times, six turns of 60 degrees, each with its mirror image, which is what folding does. Where a cut crosses a folded edge it opens into a hole twice as wide, mirrored on both sides of the fold, and the paper on either side stays joined. Cut all the way from one folded edge to the other and the snowflake falls apart; the page warns you before you print.
Questions
Is there an easy paper snowflake template for kids?
Yes: the four patterns marked easy (First snow, Six-point star, Arrowheads and Round windows) use a few big, straight cuts and no tiny holes, so a child of about six can cut them with safety scissors. Choose 4 small to get four wedges per sheet for a class. Twelve layers of printer paper are hard for small hands; for children, fold thin paper (origami paper, gift tissue or 70 to 80 g/m² copy paper), or let them cut through the template only and use the open snowflake as the result. The Colour-in outline PDF prints the finished snowflake as a line drawing to colour first and cut round.
Why six points and not eight?
Real snow crystals have six arms, because water molecules freeze into a hexagonal lattice. Folding a square into a triangle and then into thirds gives six; folding it in half three times gives eight, which makes pretty doilies but not a true snowflake shape. This maker does the six-point fold only.
What paper is best for cutting snowflakes?
Thin paper. The cut goes through 12 layers, so 80 g/m² copy paper is the thickest that works well, and 60 to 70 g/m² origami or kraft paper is easier. Tissue paper cuts beautifully but tears when you unfold it. Card does not fold to a sharp wedge at all. For window decorations, white paper looks best against glass; for a tree, try metallic wrapping paper with the white side up for the template.
Can I cut it with a Cricut or Silhouette?
Yes. The SVG button saves the open snowflake as one set of closed paths, sized in millimetres (180 mm point to point, inside a 5 mm border), so it imports at true size. A cutting machine cuts it flat from a single sheet: no folding, and much finer detail than scissors manage through 12 layers. Very small holes (under about 2 mm) can tear on a machine, so the hard patterns cut best from card stock with a fresh blade.
Is it free, and is my design sent anywhere?
It is free, with no sign-up and no watermark. Every cut, preview and download is made in your browser; nothing is uploaded. The 12 patterns were designed for this page.