Let It Snow!
Idea
It’s very cold in the winter where Mom is, so I thought I’d do something related to snowmen or snowflakes. This is another case where I decided on the mechanism first. I knew I wanted lots of planes for snowflakes and an open area for a snowman.
Design
In Sabuda’s Alice in Wonderland, the last page has Alice under an arch of many playing cards at all different angles. I wanted to do something like that, but with the snowflakes. He used an arch as the base mechanism with additional V folds to create many planes. After making a few sketches, I decided to use a zig-zag fold instead of the arch. (An arch is just a large V fold with the center cut out. The zig-zag is similar except the center is not cut out.)
Let’s count the planes as we go. All cards start with two on the base (2).
In the photo below, I have highlighted the zig-zag fold (+4). The green part is attached to the base, and the blue makes what would have been a V into a zig-zag shape.
The yellow piece was added onto the mechanism for two more planes (+2).
Using the two folds on the base created by the zig-zag, I added parallel folds for two more planes to each side (+2*2). Then on each of the two folds created by the parallel fold, I added a V fold for four more additional planes (+4*2).
Confused? In the next photo, you can see the parallel fold (yellow) attached to the base and the zig-zag (green). The two blue mechanisms, are not parallel, but are Vs that point toward the center of the card. The mechanisms on each side are identical but are cut out differently to give more variation. The left side even has a small counter fold for two more planes (+2). If my math is correct, this card has a total of 22 planes!
The snowman is a V-fold that is nearly vertical. For V folds that tilt upward, you have to make the base a bit less than 90° otherwise, it tends to lean forward.
All of the mechanisms were cut by hand. With all the joints, I was concerned about the main mechanism, the zig-zag, not being strong enough to lift all of the parallel and V folds. To help with that, instead of folding the paper and gluing on tabs, I cut slots and tabs so it would open more freely. You can see below the tabs on the back of the zig-zag fold. After adding all the snowflakes the weight seemed to make the zig-zag tip backward anyway, so perhaps it wasn’t necessary, but it does work smoothly.
Here’s a photo of the mechanism before gluing anything down. At this point, the zig-zag is taped to the base and the other pieces are attached to each other. I rather like it as an abstract paper sculpture.
I used a Silhouette Cameo machine to cut the snowflakes and the snowman. There are several different snowflakes of varying sizes, and yes, there are some identical ones.
As an Easter Egg, I write “Don’t Look Here” on every card sometimes hidden better than others. For this card’s “DLH” I have a mouse cutting out snowflakes as fast as he can.
Cover
The cover is made up of an extra layer of shimmer cardstock. On top of that layer, I added a few pieces of snowflakes.
Build
- 9” x 6”
- The base and mechanism are on cardstock from “The Shimmer Stack”, which I bought at Michael’s It’s a bit lighter than the usual Bristol paper I usually use for the base, so the cover has an extra layer.
- The snowflakes and snowman were cut by the Silhouette Cameo machine.
- All of the mechanisms were cut by hand.
- The don’t look here illustration was done using PrismaColor pencils and Pitt Artist Pens