DIY Stained "Glass" Snowflakes

Happy New Year everyone!

My Christmas break was pretty great. Lots of friends and family, and, of course, some food poisoning. After all, what’s the holiday season without a little bit of salmonella (it’s the most delicious bacteria).

Now that the holiday season is over, it’s back to the winter grind. Bundling up in 7 layers of clothing to trudge along poorly cleared sidewalks and drive on ice rinks that used to be known as roads.

I actually love winter (no, that’s not sarcasm). Snow is pretty, and the cold is just a minor nuisance. And on blustery days like today, when schools are closed and the radio is cautioning people to stay home, why not celebrate the beauty of winter with a little craft?

These gorgeous snowflakes have been hanging on my window for a few weeks, and they serve as a gentle reminder to enjoy the season.

For this pretty (but messy) craft, you will need:

• Parchment paper (or wax paper, but parchment works better in my experience)
• Tape
• Print outs of the snowflake template, which I got from Holiday Crafts and Creations. Or, if you feel inspired, you can design your own snowflakes.
• White string
• White Elmer’s glue (school glue)
• Water
• Food colouring
• A tooth pick
• A cup or bowl to put the glue in
• Scissors
• Thread or fishing line for hanging 

Instructions:

 Begin by cutting your string to the proper lengths. If you are using the template I mentioned above, each snowflake will use 

1 piece at 1 1/4 inches

6 pieces at 1 1/2 inches

6 pieces at 4 1/2 inches.

Arrange your templates on a flat surface and securing them in place with tape. Cover the templates with a long sheet of parchment paper, and secure that with tape as well.

Combine about 2 parts glue to 1 part water in a bowl or cup.

Dip the 1 1/4" piece of string in the glue, and wipe off  the excess. Place that piece on the parchment paper, tracing the center circle of the snowflake template. Try as much as possible to have the string come together and touch at the ends.

Do the same with the 4 1/2" pieces to trace the branches of the snowflake, and finally the 1 1/2" pieces to trace the little triangle pitches between the branches (at the top of the parts I coloured in).

Once all of the string is in place for one snowflake, dab a little bit of glue on each string joint in order to add some structural integrity. I don't know if this is really necessary, since the whole thing is going to be filled in with glue anyways, but I'm not a risk taker, so I did it.

This is the end of the labour intensive part. Time to let the string dry. I left mine to dry overnight. It should look a little something like this:

 Now, you may notice in the first picture of this post there are 3 snowflakes, whereas in the next picture I had 6 templates laid out. That's because I underestimates the amount of time it would take to lay out the string like I just described. It takes time guys.

Anyways, the next morning I had 3 dried snowflake string skeletons. Use plain white glue (not watered down) to fill in the sections that you will be colouring. Then add just one dot of food colouring to the center of the glue in the bigger sections.

Use your toothpick to swirl around the blue colouring within the glue puddle, being careful not to touch the string with the food colouring - it will colour the string as well if it does touch. I also used my pre-blue-ed toothpick to add a touch of blue to the smaller sections of glue, since an entire drip of blue in each would be way too much.

Again, let your snowflakes dry. You will know when they are dry completely, because they will peel off the parchment paper easily. If you face resistance, they are not fully dry.

Finally, add some thread for hanging. I used fishing line so it would be less visible against my window, but thread would look nice for a tree ornament. 

I like that the colour is not uniform throughout the glue. swirling the blue gives each snowflake it's own unique look. After all, no two snowflakes are alike.