Crafts & activities

How to make frosty paper snowflakes

Inspired by the icy landscape in Jamie Littler's Frostheart trilogy, make your own sparkly snowflakes with our easy magical salt crystal experiment.

Suzie Attaway
A photo of a paper snowflake covered in salt crystals
© Suzie Attaway

You will need:

A photo of the materials needed to make frosty paper snowflakes on a wooden background; these include an A4 piece of paper, pencil, plate scissor, salt, a spoon and hot water
© Suzie Attaway

•  White A4 paper

•  Pencil

•  Scissors

•  Salt

•  Hot water

•  Cup

•  Spoon

•  Plate

How to make:

1.  First, cut your piece of paper into a square, by folding one corner over until the sides line up. Then cut off the rectangular strip on the side. To make different-sized snowflakes simply cut a selection of small and large squares of paper.

A photo of a piece of white A4 paper that has been folded to turn it into a square
© Suzie Attaway

2.  With your square folded in half diagonally, fold it in half again – you should now have a right-angled triangle which is a quarter of the size of your original square.

A photo of a square piece of paper that has been folded diagonally
© Suzie Attaway

3.  Now fold your triangle into thirds – the tip should end up being approximately 30 degrees.

A photo of the diagonally folded square piece of paper being folded into thirds
© Suzie Attaway

4.  Using scissors, cut the bottom of the folded triangle off at an angle – the pointier the angle, the pointier the tips of the snowflake will be. Discard the excess bits of paper.

A photo of the folded triangle piece of paper having its bottom cut off
© Suzie Attaway

5.  Now it's time to design your snowflake! Draw on shapes with a pencil along all sides, you can do triangles, curves, ovals, narrow slits, whatever you like.

A photo of the triangle piece of paper with shapes drawn on it with a pencil
© Suzie Attaway

6.  Carefully cut out the shapes – younger children may need help from an adult to do this bit as cutting through the multiple layers can be quite tricky!

A photo of the triangle piece of paper with little shapes cut out of it with some scissors
© Suzie Attaway

7.  Repeat steps one to six to make more snowflakes in different sizes. Then gently open them all out to reveal your fabulous designs.

A photo of four paper snowflakes laid out next to each other on a wooden table alongside a pair of scissors
© Suzie Attaway

8.  Now for the salt crystal magic! First, add four teaspoons of salt to a cup of hot water and stir to dissolve.

A photo of a bowl of salt with a spoon in it next to a cup of hot water
© Suzie Attaway

9.  Next, place your snowflake onto a shallow plate, and pour some of the salt water on top. Set aside in a warm place for a few days (an airing or boiler cupboard is a good place) until the water has evaporated and the salt has crystallised.

A photo of a paper snowflake laid out on a plate with a hand holding a cut of salt water reading to pour
© Suzie Attaway

10.  Once dried, use a pair of scissors to carefully remove the snowflake from the plate, and voila! You've got some gorgeous frosty decorations. To display, use some blue tack and stick your snowflake to a window or loop some thread through one of the holes and hang up on your Christmas tree.

A photo of a paper snowflake on a plate, covered in salt crystals
© Suzie Attaway
A photo of four paper snowflakes covered in salt crystals laid out next to each other on a dark blue table
© Suzie Attaway

Big thanks to Suzie Attaway for putting together this crafting activity! For more fun crafts and styling, check out Suzie's Instagram @craftpropstylist

The Frostheart trilogy

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