How to make a fern paper snowflake
Fern Paper Snowflake: try all 11 steps in the 3D player. Turn and replay every move. Print the complete diagram sheet or save it as PDF.
An Origami Tutor design: fold the usual six-point packet, trim it, then cut one zigzag along the sloping edge. Six feathered fern arms, like frost on a window, meet at a solid centre.
- You need
- Thin paper, a pencil, a ruler, a 30°/60° set square or the printed angle guide, and small scissors.
- Start
- Begin with a 12 × 12 cm square of thin paper and a 30°/60° set square.
Your model is ready
Ease the creases flat. Lift the opened paper by an uncut edge to see the whole pattern. Hold the opened paper upright and flat, with the whole pattern.
Step-by-step diagrams
Steps 1–6
- 1
Fold the square in half
Bring the bottom edge to the top edge. The midpoint of the folded edge is the snowflake centre; mark it lightly.
- 2
Fold the left third across
At the marked midpoint, use the 60° corner of a set square to mark a ray up and left. Fold the left side over that ray; its folded edge now points up and right.
- 3
Fold the right third across
Fold the right side over the matching 60° ray up and right. Line its folded edge up with the left sloping edge. All three sectors should match at the centre.
- 4
Halve the wedge
Bring the left sloping edge to the right sloping edge. Fold straight up from the centre to make a narrow 30° packet with twelve layers near its point.
- 5
Trim the uneven tips
Cut straight across the packet 48 mm above its centre. The two uneven ears fall away and every sector now ends in the same straight edge.
- 6
Cut the small window
Cut a small triangle into the straight folded edge, between 5 and 12 mm from the centre. Keep the paper around the centre whole.
Steps 7–11
- 7
Cut the fern arm
Start on the straight folded edge 14 mm above the centre and cut to a point 2.5 mm from the sloping edge. Follow the edge outward with four slanted barbs, each a long diagonal out and a short step back, then run out along the arm to the sloping edge's far corner.
- 8
Open wedge half
Open this crease gently, leaving the earlier folds closed. Keep the uncut joins together.
- 9
Open right third
Open this crease gently, leaving the earlier folds closed. Keep the uncut joins together.
- 10
Open left third
Open this crease gently, leaving the earlier folds closed. Keep the uncut joins together.
- 11
Open half
Open this crease gently, leaving the earlier folds closed. Keep the uncut joins together.
- ✓
Finish
Ease the creases flat. Lift the opened paper by an uncut edge to see the whole pattern. Hold the opened paper upright and flat, with the whole pattern.
Fold next
Lacy six-point paper snowflake ↗
Use the same real 30° packet as the easy snowflake. Four separate lace cuts leave bridges and an intact centre; the folded blade lines are a printable guide.
Hearts paper snowflake ↗
An Origami Tutor design: fold the usual six-point packet, trim it, then cut half a heart into each folded edge. Opened, the snowflake has a ring of six large hearts and six small ones.
Pointed crystal paper snowflake ↗
An Origami Tutor design: fold the usual six-point packet, trim it, then cut one stepped line along the sloping edge. Each arm keeps a thin stem, two sharp diamonds and a needle tip, like an ice crystal.
Round doily paper snowflake ↗
An Origami Tutor design: fold the usual six-point packet, trim it, then cut one round scallop and bite round holes from the folded edges. Opened, it is a lace doily of rings inside a scalloped edge.