This past week we've done two WONDERFUL snowflake crafts.  Both of these crafts have been yearly traditions for us for a long time.

PAPER SNOWFLAKES

I found the instructions for these at the Martha Stewart website.  They are NOT the easiest paper snowflakes to make, but they ARE the MOST beautiful and well worth the effort!!

Once I showed Hannah how to do a couple of them, she took off on these on her own and worked hours on them! She especially LOVES them.  Alex did a few and then let Mom take over.

We experimented with different sizes of squares which made different sizes of snowflakes.  We used different things like the bottom of a tissue box and a perfectly square book to trace out the squares.  After awhile, we started to get really good at these and made some absolutely beautiful ones!

We saw some of the neatest shapes in them too!

Bells...

...and even Rocket Ships!

These make such a pretty decoration for the season.  We taped them on our door and in a circle for a wreath on the wall.

BORAX SNOWFLAKES

Yesterday we began the process of making Borax Snowflakes.  These also take a little effort, but are well worth the time.  This also opened up an opportunity to have a Science lesson on crystals and also some basics about snowflakes and how they are six-sided crystals.  The link above gives you the instructions and the Science lesson about Borax.

YESTERDAY...

THIS MORNING...

I used my Macro setting on most of these photos to try and show you how beautiful these are!

Blue Tinted 

Clear, but Reflecting White Just Like Snow

Closeups!

The kids scraped some of the loose crystals from the bottoms and sides of the glasses and put them out onto a dark piece of felt, and observed them even closer under a magnifying glass.

I tried to get a good Macro photo through the magnifying glass.

Then they got the bright idea that they could take food colorings and soak the clear crystals in it to make them pretty colors.

I got some Macros of those beauties too.

"SNOW" much fun!!!