For Day #19 of 30 Days of DIY Designer Ornaments I promised a colorful twist on a classic holiday decoration.

Don’t you just love crafting paper snowflakes? The surprise-factor of revealing the design always gets me. But I don’t like their temporary nature. Our flakes rarely survive the taping, kid tugging and kitten swatting, to become part of next year’s decor. I wondered how I could create a more lasting “paper” snowflake.

The solution? Pre-primed artist canvas sheets, sold in a pad at the art supply store. And while you can certainly leave your snowflakes naked white, this colorholic had to wash ours in cool, winter hues.

There’s a cold front moving in. Let’s create a flurry…

Materials and Tools:

• Pad of pre-primed artist canvas sheets
• Acrylic Paints
• Foam brushes
• Heavy-duty fabric shears

Instructions:
1. Plan and paint your design. I brushed on watery strokes of acrylic paints in cool blues and purples. Choose a color and design that makes you happy – wouldn’t polka dots be fun??? What would you choose?

Leave plenty of white canvas showing, so the snowflakes will still sparkle in the light. And one word to the wise: Avoid yellow snow. ‘Nuff said.

2. Now go off and bake some cookies (or reality check – do the laundry) and let your canvases dry thoroughly.

3. Next, make your canvases square and a good snowflake size. My sheets were 9″ x 12″; I folded and cut them in half, then I brought up the short edge and made a diagonal fold to form a square. I trimmed the excess (see photos).

4. Now you’ll fold your canvas for snowflake cutting. LOTS of good info. on this online, so I won’t recreate the wheel. Here are a couple sites I found helpful:

• http://www.highhopes.com/snowflakes.html
• http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/snowflake9.shtml

Note: Canvas is thicker than paper, so crease and fold the canvas well, and hold the folds tight together when you cut. Using the heavy-duty fabric shears, cut out the snowflake pattern to your liking. It’s not the easiest to cut, but take your time cutting and removing each section, and you’ll triumph. An adult should do this step (the tradeoff for a lasting snowflake) – so I suggest putting the kids in charge of choosing the design.

5. Ta-Da! All done. Now flake out your tree, mantel, walls – wherever! These would be lovely placed under clear glass plates at the dining table.

Thanks for decorating with us on Day #19 of 30 Days of DIY Designer Ornaments.

Next time, we get all natural and earthy….