These origami snowflakes make brilliant inexpensive Christmas ornaments – hang on Christmas trees, decorate on walls, windows, presents, greeting cards and anywhere you can imagine.  This project is quite intricate.  We’ll try our best to explain in words, so please follow as closely as possible.

Difficulty Level ★★★★

Materials:

1. Any square paper / origami paper
   (1 paper makes 1 snowflake)
2. Scissors

Method:

Step 1
Fold the paper in half twice to get crease lines.

Step 2
Fold one corner of the paper to the center.  Fold the top flap out towards the edge.  This will give you two additional crease lines.

Step 3
Fold the paper in half again.  You should get something like the image on the left.  Using the two “X”s shown as points of reference, fold flap A behind (fold along the dotted line).  Turn over the paper and you should see something like image on right.

Step 4
Fold flap B behind, aligning the blue and red edges.
You should get a heart-like shape.

Step 5
Cut along the blue line. Use the 2 “X”s as points of reference.
We only want to keep the portion labelled A.

Step 6
Fold an edge of the hexagon towards the center to make a crease line.  Repeat for all 6 edges.   At the end of the step, you will see many crease-formed triangles within the hexagon.

Step 7
Fold an edge of the hexagon to the center again.  Using the crease lines formed in the Step 6, fold flap A to flap B (left image).  Perform the same fold pattern of folding flap A to flap B repeatedly (center image), until you get a pinwheel-like shape.  On the last flap, you may encounter a slight problem of the last flap being hidden under the folds.  Simply pull it out to get all 6 flaps sticking out (right image).

Step 8
Squash fold each flap pocket (left image).  You should get something like the center image.  It doesn’t matter which flap goes on top, so your result may not look exactly like the image on the right.

Step 9
On each of these flattened pockets, fold the two blue edges toward the center dotted line.  The purpose is to make crease lines for the next step.  You should get something like the image on the right.

Step 10
Unfold the folds done in Step 9 to reveal the crease lines.  For each pocket, bring the blue “X” toward the red “X”.  The crease lines formed in Step 9 will help.  After completing all 6 pockets, the paper should look something like the image on the right.

Step 11
Turn the paper over (left image).  Bring each pointed tip of the hexagon towards the center.  Ensure that each adjacent fold exposes a tiny flap.  Do not hide this flap beneath the fold.  You should get something like the image on the right.

Step 12
Squash fold each of the tiny flaps.
The crease lines formed are meant to help in the next step.

Step 13
Invert the folds done in Step 12, hiding the flaps neatly underneath.

Step 14
Flip over. Bring each tip from the middle as far out as possible and make a fold.
At the end of the step, you should get 12 flaps – 6 big flaps, 6 small flaps.

Step 15
Flip over.  In between any two big flaps is a small flap.  “Bring forward” each of the small flaps. Look closely at the left and center images as a guide.  At the end of the step, you should get 6 kite-like shapes (image on the right).

Step 16
For each half of a “kite”, bring the blue edge to the center of the kite (dotted).  Squash-fold the pop-up towards the edge.  You should get something like the image on the right.  You need to perform this a total of 12 times.

You’re finally done!
Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

(adapted from Snowflake by creator Dennis Walker)

Our Baked Apple Chips recipe featured on Instructables!

This is a real delicious hearty alternative snack to bags of sinful potato chips. I used 4122 NZ Queen apples because they have deep red skin colour with sweet flavour and crisp, juicy white flesh; just perfect for apple chips making!

Yields ~ 40 – 50 chips

Ingredients

• 5 ripe apples
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 400 ml water

Method

1. Briefly wash the apples with tap water. Core each apple with an apple corer, then carefully slice them into ~5 mm rings with a knife. Discard or eat the outer rings that have most skin on them, which we won’t be needing.
2. In a bowl, combine lemon juice and water. Soak the apple slices in the mixture for 5 – 10 mins. Then remove them from the bowl and briefly dab dry on kitchen towel.
3. Place them in a single layer on baking trays and dry in oven on lowest temperature (80 – 90°C) for around 4 – 6 hours (can be done in stages), depending on how crispy you want them to be. The longer they dry, the crispier they get. Flip the slices occasionally as they dry. Keep the oven door slightly ajar with a wooden spoon/skewer to create airflow so that the slices dry rather than cook.
4. Remove from oven, transfer into airtight jar. Store in cool, dry dark place. Check regularly for any signs of deterioration.

(adapted from PreserveIt! by Lynda Brown, DK Publishing)

Makes 2 glasses

Ingredients

• 3 Kiwifruit (peeled)
• 1/2 Lemon (sliced)
• 1 Tbsp Caster Sugar
• 1 Green Tea Bag
• 500ml Boiling Water

• Ice Cubes (to serve)
• Kiwifruit Slices (to serve)
• Lemon Slices (to serve)

Method

1. Combine lemon slices and tea bag in large heatproof bowl/jug then pour boiling water over. Infuse for 5 minutes before discarding tea bag.
2. Meanwhile, juice kiwifruits through juice extractor.
3. Add kiwifruit juice and sugar to the infused tea. Stir until sugar dissolves. Set aside to cool, then chill.
4. Serve chilled with ice cubes, garnish with kiwi and lemon slices.

Our Rabbit Origami tutorial featured on i-Pet – Issue 11!