10 Paper Snowflake Templates for Easy DIY Winter Decor

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Learn how to fold, cut, and decorate beautiful, intricate paper snowflakes

Co-authored by Anna Knight and Dan Hickey

Last Updated: August 11, 2026 Fact Checked

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Folding the Paper

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Patterns & Templates

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Snowflake Crafting Tips

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Video

With the right template, turning a classic paper snowflake into an intricate piece of winter decor is a fun and easy project! Below, we’ll explain exactly how to fold and cut your paper so it creates a 6-pointed snowflake when it’s unfurled, then provide 10 fun and festive pattern templates to try out for some truly unique designs. We’ve also got some tips on how to freestyle a snowflake and the best ways to display and decorate your work.

Festive Paper Snowflake Designs

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An illustration showing several paper snowflake pattern templates and what they look like unfolded.

Use sharp scissors or a utility knife to cut intricate patterns like stars, hearts, Christmas trees, flowers, or even snowmen and candy canes into your paper snowflakes. When you unfold your template, you’ll have a symmetrical, 6-pointed snowflake featuring your chosen design!

Section 1 of 3:

Folding & Prepping Your Snowflake Paper

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Start with a square piece of paper. Making a delicate paper snowflake is simple! As crafting expert Renee Day puts it, “All you need to make paper snowflakes is some paper and scissors.”^{[1]
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Renee Day
Crafting Expert

Expert Interview} However, that paper needs to be square to get started. Grab a typical 8.5 x 11-inch (21.6 x 27.9 cm) sheet of paper and fold one corner down to meet the opposite edge (forming a triangle). Trim off the excess paper and you’ll have a square left behind.^{[2]
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- Don’t worry about creasing the paper. You’ll have to fold it along the same line in the next step!
- These folding steps will result in a classic 6-pointed snowflake. Since water molecules stick to each other in hexagonal patterns, all real-life snowflakes have 6 sides!^{[3]
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Meet the wikiHow Experts

Renee Day is a crafting expert specializing in paper crafts, brush lettering, stamping, stenciling, doodling, and more. Her Instagram account, thediyday, has over 300K followers.

Anna Knight is a crafting expert and founder of the creative blog, Earth and Sky Play, where she shares upcycled crafts, nature-inspired designs, recycled art, and simple DIY projects.
Bring 2 opposite corners together and flatten the crease to turn your square into a triangle. (If you trimmed your square from a larger sheet of paper, fold along the same crease you made earlier.)^{[4]
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Fold your triangle shape in half to form a smaller triangle. At this point, it should be 4 layers thick.^{[5]
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Fold the right third of the triangle over the center. Now for the part that might take a bit of practice to get just right. Situate the triangle so the long edge is on top (farthest from you) and the point of the triangle is directed at you. Imagine (or lightly draw in pencil) 2 diagonal lines coming from the bottom point and intersecting with the long edge, dividing it approximately into thirds.^{[6]
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- Then, fold the right third of the triangle toward the center along the diagonal line closest to the right edge. The right edge should end up aligning with the diagonal line closer to the left edge.
- Pro tip: If you want to make sure your lines make perfect thirds, use a protractor to draw lines that form 30-degree angles with the bottom point.
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Fold the left third of the triangle over the center. Now, perform the same fold on the other side of the triangle. Fold the left portion along the diagonal line on the left side (where the right edge of the triangle now is). After it’s folded, the left edge of the triangle should line up exactly with the folded right edge.^{[7]
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- Try to get the edges to line up as closely as possible for the most symmetrical snowflake.
- At this point, the paper should look like an ice cream cone shape with 2 points sticking out of the top.
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Trim off the excess paper at the top. Flip over your paper so you’re looking at the back side, then cut across the top in a straight line along the flat top edge of the paper (the central third that was not folded earlier)^{[8]
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Research source} This is the highest you can cut to keep all layers of paper the same size.
- To make a smaller snowflake, cut across at a lower spot on the paper.
- To make the 6 points of your snowflake more exaggerated, cut on a diagonal instead of straight across. The steeper the diagonal, the pointer the point.
- After you’ve trimmed your paper, you’re ready to cut your design!

Section 2 of 3:

Paper Snowflake Patterns & Templates

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Classic large snowflake needles pattern This quintessential design creates 6 spindly points with 3 pairs of needles coming off of each one, and a solid circular shape in the center to hold it all together. The lines are all straightforward to cut, making this a good choice for kids, too!^{[9]
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- Tip: Cut your snowflake designs out over a trashcan to avoid making a big mess of little pieces of paper.
This template only uses 6 straight cuts—perfect for younger kids who might struggle with more intricate designs. The end result is a large, solid hexagonal center (perfect for decorating!) with 6 points that each have 3 thick needles jutting out of them.^{[10]
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Is love in the air this winter? This elegant design uses curved cuts to create a heart at the end of each snowflake point. This one might be challenging with scissors, so you may want to use an utility knife and a cutting mat for clean lines and precision.^{[11]
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This intricate template is perfect for the holiday season! When unfolded, the result is a repeating pattern of Christmas tree baubles decorated with lines, dots, and stars. For consistent dots, use a hole puncher instead of trying to cut holes yourself. This may be a challenging one to do with scissors, so a utility knife is recommended!^{[12]
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This intricate template creates Christmas tree shapes for each of the 6 points of the snowflake, with shorter trees between them. It’s perfect for the holidays or for hanging on your Christmas tree!^{[13]
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If you spend your winters in a warm and beachy area (or you’re stuck in the frigid north and wish you did), this sand dollar template is the perfect way to combine coastal vibes and winter cheer. Use this design, or copy a sand dollar of your own for a personal touch!^{[14]
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Lotus flowers are symbols of beauty, purity, and inner strength, making them a beautiful and meaningful addition to your snowflake design. This template uses delicate curved lines to create 2 sets of lotus flowers (6 large ones at the points, and 6 smaller ones in the snowflake’s inner ring).^{[15]
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Got a sweet tooth? This template creates a fun and intricate pattern of candy canes along the outer edge of the snowflake for a unique and festive touch. The star shapes in the center add to the pizzazz!^{[16]
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Conjure up Frosty the Snowman with this cute template! The end result looks like a wreath of snowmen holding hands along the outside of the snowflake. This may be a hard one for kiddos to cut, so consider letting them decorate each snowman with a face or colors at the end to help out.^{[17]
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The Celtic trinity knot symbolizes eternity and spirituality, and it’s a super unique and intricate pattern for a snowflake! You’ll definitely want to use a utility knife to cut these delicate shapes out—the more precise you are, the more perfectly symmetrical your knots will be!^{[18]
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Freehanding Of course, you don’t have to use a template if you don’t want to! No 2 snowflakes are the same, so freehanding your design is a great way to add variety to your snowflake collection. As crafting expert Anna Knight says, “You can be quite free with the snowflakes. There are templates that you can use, but you can just cut and see what comes out of it.”^{[19]
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Anna Knight
Crafting Expert

Expert Interview} Here are some general tips and inspiration for creating a pleasing pattern on the fly:
- Cut your shapes from the outside edges of the paper. Small triangles along the edges are easy to start with—they become diamonds or kites when unfolded.
- Snip the bottom point at an angle to form a star shape in the center of your snowflake.
- Try not to leave any lines thicker than about ¼ inch (0.6 cm), since these can look clunky when you unfold the paper. Cut them thinner, or add triangles along the edges to give them decorative “teeth.”
- Do not cut all the way across your paper, or you’ll chop your snowflake in half.
- Lightly pencil in your design before cutting if you’re worried about precision or even spacing between shapes.
- Have fun with it! If a snowflake doesn’t turn out the way you imagined, it’s simple to start over with a fresh sheet of paper. Practice makes perfect, as they say.

Section 3 of 3:

Paper Snowflake Crafting Tips

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Display your snowflakes with tape or string. Double-sided tape is an easy solution for sticking snowflakes to windows or walls (use a small piece and place it on an area with enough paper so that the tape doesn’t show). Or, consider hanging your snowflakes with string or twine (or fishing line if you want the string to be nearly invisible). If you plan to hang them, use a template or design with some thicker lines in it for support.
- Or, use your snowflakes to decorate wrapped gifts in place of a bow!
To get rid of the folding creases in your snowflake, shut it inside the pages of a large book for a few hours or overnight to flatten it out. To get them extra flat, try ironing them between 2 other sheets of paper on low heat (keep the iron moving to avoid burning the paper!).
Knight suggests splotching your snowflakes with water colors or diluted food coloring for splashes of color: “What I would do is use a pipette with some watercolors, or maybe some water with food coloring, and just lightly decorate and drop those colors onto the snowflake to make lots of pretty colors. And then, you can stick that to your window with some Blu Tack if you like.”^{[20]
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Anna Knight
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If you have a child who’s struggling to fold a 6-pointed star, a coffee filter makes a great substitution. As Knight explains, “If you've got a round [coffee filter], you would fold the circle in half to make a semicircle, and then you would fold it over again to make a quarter, and then you would fold that up again so you've got an eighth. And then from that, you can cut out interesting patterns.”^{[21]
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Anna Knight
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