One of the easiest, most common, and most enjoyable of holiday crafts is cutting snowflakes out of paper. Folding your paper to create a standard eight-pointed paper snowflake is pretty easy, as long as you can keep track of which corner will be the center of the snowflake. Just follow these steps.
Starting with a standard 8-1/2 x 11-inch sheet of paper, fold two adjacent edges together and make a crease.
![Starting with a standard 8-1/2 x 11-inch sheet of paper, fold two adjacent edges together and make a crease.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163450.image0.jpg)
If your paper is already perfectly square, you can go ahead and skip to Step 4.
Fold the extra flap of paper over the edge next to it and make a crease.
![Fold the extra flap of paper over the edge next to it and make a crease.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163452.image2.jpg)
Try to make this crease as straight as possible.
Unfold that flap and cut it off, following the crease you just made.
![Unfold that flap and cut it off, following the crease you just made.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163454.image4.jpg)
You’ll end up with a long, thin rectangle (which you can throw away) and a perfect square (which will soon become a beautiful snowflake) folded into an isosceles right triangle.
With the folded edge horizontally in front of you, fold the left corner over onto the right corner and crease.
![With the folded edge horizontally in front of you, fold the left corner over onto the right corner and crease.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163456.image6.jpg)
You now have a quarter-sized triangle.
Fold the right corner up to the top corner and crease.
![Fold the right corner up to the top corner and crease.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163458.image8.jpg)
Your triangle just keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Fold the left edge over so that it lines up with the right edge and crease.
![Fold the left edge over so that it lines up with the right edge and crease.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163460.image10.jpg)
You’ll end up with a triangle at the top that hasn’t been folded as much as the rest.
Flip the paper over and cut that extra triangle off the top.
![Flip the paper over and cut that extra triangle off the top.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163462.image12.jpg)
If you unfold the paper now, you’ll have an octagon.
Cut shapes out of the edges of what's left.
![Cut shapes out of the edges of what's left.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163464.image14.jpg)
Keep in mind that the bottom point of the triangle will be the center of the snowflake.
Unfold the snowflake and put it on display.
![Unfold the snowflake and put it on display.](https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/163466.image16.jpg)
With a little experimentation, you can figure out how to create some really intricate, lacy designs.