She's Crafty | Winter Wonderland on the Inside

Brrrrrrr! It's cold outside! This kind of weather makes me think of snowflakes. Lots of them. And, while I like the idea of snow, I've never really developed a love for the real deal--not much going for it in my opinion. It's probably because I've never lived where it snows--I just don't understand how people can think sliding around on the cold, wet stuff is so much fun. To each, her own, I guess.

But, the look of snow, that's what I love. Beautiful, soft shapes covering the world outside like a blanket, yet also a sparkling crisp whiteness, blinding in it's intensity when the sun hits it. Oh, and there's the snowflakes;  real ones you can only see in extreme close-up. I've only seen them in photographs, but what amazing things they are, all with six sides, no two exactly alike. Breathtaking. Enchanting. Absolutely beautiful.

Wilson Bentley

Have you ever heard of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1865--1931)? He was the man who first worked out a way to photograph nature's own snowflake designs. Our library has a few titles concerning Bentley and his snowflakes:

• Snowflake Bentley [DVD Videorecording] by Weston Woods (Pub.)

• My Brother Loved Snowflakes by Mary Bhar Fritts

• Snowflake Bentley by Jacquiline Briggs Martin

• The Snowflake Man by Duncan C. Blanchard

And, from a link plus library, there's a glorious photographic album of real snowflakes, The Art of the Snowflake, by Kenneth Libbrecht, who uses technology Bentley had never dreamed of to photograph snowflakes today. Libbrecht has also collected some of nature's most beautiful snowflake designs in his photographs...at least, I think so, but I can't be sure. You see, photographs can't capture all of the myriads of designs mother nature produces every year when the snow falls. I can't even imagine how many unseen snowflakes there might be in a single drift outside someone's cabin door, let alone everywhere there's snow. And, once they melt, the designs are lost forever.

M Scott Moon - AP

I think that's one reason Malia and I have been making our own winter wonderland indoors every year. We can save the designs we like the best. Not that the designs we've created in white paper, white crochet cotton, white coffee filters, and anything else white we could fold, snip, hook, or weave into intricate designs could ever come close to capturing nature's real deal. But, I think it gets us closer to the idea of snow and snowflakes and the enchantment of nature's yearly show. Plus, we don't even get cold or wet!

Last year, snowflakes were a major theme for all my holiday crafting and decorating. During my internet research, I ran across two amazing ideas.

1. Make snowflakes out of coffee filters.
2. Hang snowflakes from the ceiling, around the Christmas tree.

So of course, I had to do it.

Our very own indoor, six-sided, coffee filter snow storm.

Coffee filters make the best snowflakes. They're easy to cut, they twirl around on their own when hung, the translucent paper gives the flakes an ethereal look, and if you plaster them to a window they look fantastic!

If you'd like to try your hand at making some snowflakes, there are some great instructions to be found online. Just type "paper snowflake instructions" into Google's search bar and you'll get plenty to choose from. There's one from the Instructables website that's especially good in that it teaches you to analyze snowflake photographs so you can make your snowflakes look as real as you can get them.

Enjoy your fantastic flurries while you stay warm, dry, and crafty!
Kaye & Malia