Fun with paper!

Snowflake

     Nothing brings out my crafty side more than the approach of Christmas.  For years, I have made paper snowflakes to hang in windows and set out doily-like on tables.  Although they are not "true" snowflakes in that they are not six-sided, I like the look of the less traditional, but easier-to-fold-and-cut four-sided symmetry.  Start with a square piece of paper, fold it in half diagonally, then again, then once more and you are ready to begin.  Use sharp scissors so the paper doesn't tear and so you get clean, sharp lines.  From there, just let your imagination take hold.  I try to cut as much paper away as possible and usually just follow my instincts.  The above snowflake (the first of the season!) was inspired by the Christmas Cactuses we have, and which are in the midst of flowering.  The "arms" are very like the serrated leaves with flower buds at the tips.  I have also used coloured paper to great effect and have also cut shapes that can be folded up to create 3D effects.  I will show some of those at a later date.

Origami Xmas tree

     As you may recall from previous posts, I like to make origami, and at Christmas-time, I enjoy making origami Christmas tree decorations for our tree and as hostess gifts.  I was surfing the web this year to come up with some new ideas and came across the following web-site: http://stephensorigami.blogspot.ca/2010/12/origami-christmas-tree-tutorial.html.  His tree is much more involved than mine above and uses poster board.  I am lucky to have such a vast assortment of origami paper that I could use brown for the trunk, but because I was running low on green I could only do three tiers for the greenery.  I quite like how it turned out though and will definitely be making more for household decorations.  In addition, the individual units that make up the tree lend themselves well to Christmas decorations - see the side for the units (upside-down) and finished products.  I used paper that is coloured on both sides, which is important as the individual units would have white showing otherwise.

Christmas Tree Decorations