Why an 8-point snowflake folds differently
An 8-point snowflake comes from folding a square in half over and over. After the first fold the middle of the square has 180° of paper around it; each further fold halves that, so after four folds you hold a wedge of 22.5° made of 16 layers. Unfold it and the wedge repeats 16 times around the middle, as 8 mirrored pairs: one arm per pair, eight arms in all.
A 6-point snowflake needs a fold into thirds, which is harder to get even. That is why 8-point snowflakes are a common first snowflake: every fold is a simple halving, and you can line up the edges exactly.
How the template helps
The page opens on the Eight-point star. Download the PDF and the first page is a square with four numbered fold lines. Fold the bottom half back along line 1, the right half back along line 2, and the left parts back along lines 3 and 4. The gray pattern is then on top of the stack: cut it away and unfold. You cut the printout itself, so it doesn’t matter if your printer shrinks the page a little.
Getting a clean 16-layer cut
- Crease each fold firmly; small errors double with every fold.
- Use a paper clip to hold the stack together at the outer edge.
- Keep cuts a few millimeters apart. In the narrow wedge, shapes on both folds sit close together and can cut a ring loose; the preview marks those pieces in red.
- If the stack is too stiff, print the trace-on wedge page instead, fold thinner paper and trace the lines.
The designs on this page
| Design | Points | Layers | Outer edge | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eight-point star | 8 | 16 | Pointed | Medium |
| Easy eight | 8 | 16 | Round | Easy |
| Eight-point lace | 8 | 16 | Double points | Intricate |
| Petals | 8 | 16 | Round | Medium |
All designs were drawn for this site. Every other design is under All in the design list, and the paper snowflake maker lets you cut your own.