DIY Snowflake Sign
The wreath I usually hang on our coat closet door fell and broke this year, and although I intend to fix it eventually, I decided to take the opportunity to make something new to display. Something that fits perfectly with our entryway decor. I decorate the front two rooms of our house in red and white with a lot of snowflakes, so what better to make than a snowflake sign? As it happens, I saw the perfect supplies online at Michaels. It was a wooden snowflake and wooden words spelling out “Merry & Bright.” Unfortunately, they were sold out. So I had to improvise! Here’s what I used, and how I made my own snowflake.
One of my favorite parts of this project is that I didn’t have to buy a single thing. Everything I used, I already had on hand. None of it should be hard to find, though.
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Supplies:
- Foam board
- Snowflake template
- Craft knife
- Tape
- Yarn
- Glue gun/glue sticks
- Cardstock
- Scissors
- Tacky glue
- Small piece of ribbon/string
Optional:
- Cutting machine (my favorite is the Silhouette Cameo)
I don’t have the means to cut out my own wood snowflake or words, so I knew I’d have to come up with something else. I still wanted something substantial, though. I just happened to have some foam board left over from the wood and paper nativity I made last year, so I went with that for the snowflake. There is no way I was going to attempt to cut out whole words that way, so I opted for red cardstock cut out with my Cameo.
The first thing I did was hunt for the perfect snowflake image to trace. I have a bunch of snowflakes I’ve bought from the Silhouette store, but I was looking specifically for something that wasn’t very intricate AND had a big enough center to attach the words.
Once I found my snowflake, I enlisted the help of my husband to make it the size I wanted it (it’s about 18” tall), which required breaking it up over four pages for printing purposes. Then I taped it together, and taped the whole thing onto the foam board.
Rather than cut out the snowflake template, I used my craft knife to cut through the paper and foam at the same time. I worked on the floor since the snowflake is so big, and I put some catalogs underneath to protect the carpet. Cutting through foam board is slow going, but I got it done!
Once I had the snowflake cut out, the edges were a little rough. I tried for a bit to even them out, but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to be possible. I could have left it as-is, but I opted to line it with yarn instead. The yarn hides the imperfections, and—in my opinion—adds a little extra to the snowflake. I call it a win!
To attach the yarn, I went around the snowflake slowly with my glue gun. I burned my fingers a few time doing this, so be careful! I actually started out going over the ends of the snowflake with the yarn, but I soon switched to lining the top (front?) edge. I’m much happier with the way that looks.
To cut out the letters, I chose a script font in Silhouette Studio and cut it out of red cardstock. I wanted the letters to be a little more substantial than just a single layer of cardstock, so I cut everything out five times. (I ended up making the & smaller after these pictures were taken.)
I used a heavy duty glue stick to glue the five layers together, but I think I would have been better off using my Tacky glue. I couldn’t get some of the layers to stick together in places.
Because I lined the snowflake with yarn, I needed something to make the letters stick out a bit. I used scraps of foam board to do just that. Once I had placed the words where I wanted them, I cut little pieces of foam and used them to glue the words onto the snowflake. I glued the “&” directly to the snowflake, and I like the way it looks.
The finishing touch is a little ribbon hanger. I had pulled out some beautiful red velvet ribbon for another project, so I used a little piece of that. I glued it with my Tacky glue first, and then I put a piece of packing tape over it just to secure it.
I’m so excited to have this hanging in my entryway!
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and happy crafting!
