Paper snowflakes are an easy, fun, and inexpensive do-it-yourself decoration for your home, office, or classroom. In the spirit of the season, we turned some IceCube motifs into snowflake templates for you to cut out yourself! Click the links below to access a PDF of the template, follow the folding instructions, and then snip, snip, snip.
Note that these snowflake templates are rather advanced! Be careful when cutting around tight corners or thin sections. Here are some of our snowflake cutting tips:
+ Use small scissors—the smaller, the better! Especially for the detail work.
+ Crease the edges of each fold with a pencil or the scissors’ handle to prevent paper from slipping while cutting.
+ Print on thinner paper for easier cutting.
+ Cut the inner detail work first, then unfold once to do the outside cuts.
A note on the science: Real snowflakes are almost always six-sided because of the way water molecules bond together. But since these designs are so detailed, it is easier to cut these when they have just four sides.
Try them out and share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! Happy holidays from all of us at IceCube!
DOM (digital optical module), four-sided
DOM (digital optical module), six-sided
IceCube Laboratory, four-sided
Professor Francis Halzen, IceCube PI
Gibbs the Penguin (from our web comic, Adventures with Rosie & Gibbs)
Rosie the Penguin (from our web comic, Adventures with Rosie & Gibbs)