It’s snowing! Yes it is snowing outside so let’s make some snowballs for inside as well. I made these paper snowballs for a demo at the Country Living Fair in Glasgow the other week and they went down a storm (snow storm of course!), so here’s how you can do them too.

Here’s what you’ll need for your paper snowballs;

2 sheets of plain white tissue paper (now available really cheaply in many supermarkets and also free with almost any purchase in high street shops!)

Thread for hanging, embroidery, glittery or bakers twine, anything will do, just keep it fine so it doesn’t interfere with shape of snowballs.

Scissors

Here’s how to make your paper snowballs;

You want to have 8 square of paper to make these, so place the two sheets on top of each other and fold in half.

Cut along the fold and then fold in half again and cut that fold line.

You now have 8 pieces of oblong paper, no use whatsoever!

Fold one corner of the paper stack triangle wise so that it touches the edge of the paper. This makes a perfect square shape. Carefully cut along this imaginary line.

You now have 8 squares of white tissue – perfect!

Start to pleat the paper concertina fashion as if you were making a paper fan. You want the pleats to be about half an inch wide, just go back and forth until you have folded up the square completely.

Now tie your thread around the middle, make it tight to hold the pleats together, but don’t pull hard and gather as you don’t want to cut the paper just hold it in place. Leave a long tail for you to use as a hanger.

Use your scissors to carefully cut the ends of the pleated tissue into points. Cut about 1/4 inch down side to middle of the end of paper, then same on other side. You will now have pointy ends on your paper accordion.

Now the fluffy part. Start to carefully peel open the tissue layers on one side of the accordion. tease out one layer from the top of the stack and then one layer from the bottom. This means you get a rounded fluffy shape.

When you have done one side completely, move on to the other side and do exactly the same thing.

When you have fluffed everything out just tease it into a complete ball and you have a finished snowball.

Make them in all different sizes and maybe touch the tips of the snowball with craft glue and dip into glitter for a sparkly effect.

Fill a whole window with paper snowballs. If you are doing something for a school of village hall this Christmas make them in all sizes (get kids to help here) and hang them at differing heights and make a grand display – think big!

Karon x