no-budget christmas decor! paper snowflakes.

if my budget for christmas crafting/decorating was next-to-nothing last year, i must admit it is literally nothing this year. this year, unlike any we've had before, is a use-what-you-have, really get creative, necessity is the mother of invention kind of year when it comes down to it. we've got tons of blessings to be thankful for, but extra cash for decorations just isn't the priority, you know?

so allow me to introduce a mini-series of sorts, if you will... the no-budget christmas crafts series! my next few posts will be all about how to make a few fun things basically for free, a few special additions to your tried & true traditional christmas decorations.

today's craft was a bit of an afterthought. we were cleaning/sorting/rearranging our desk area & the hubs handed me a couple of sheets of plain white printer paper. instead of putting it away with its kind, i quickly stuck it in my 3 year old's stash of paper that she's allowed to create upon. she's totally obsessed with scissors right now, and when i sat to play "cutting" with her, i thought some paper snowflakes might be nice!
i attempted one of these cute ones from life is sweet [found via pinterest, i believe?], but really all i did was fold them up & cut cut cut. really, you can do no wrong. i started with different sizes of paper so i'd have a couple different sized snowflakes. here was my favorite bigger one:
and my favorite little one:
here's where we decided they needed to live, on top my ballard-inspired corkboard above the desk. [i have a tutorial coming soon for that corkboard, it's just not quite done yet! can you see the spots where the nailhead trim is missing? hopefully the snowflakes have strategically covered them.]
they were so pretty & such an instant-gratification craft, i ended up making a couple more. and i'm already brewing ideas on how to store them away & save them for next year. try to fold them back up? glue them to some sort of cardboard backing?
all these took was some plain white paper & scissors. if you have those on hand, then they're completely free! i'm thinking now they might need some book page snowflake friends?