Quantcast
Channel: GeekMom » Printable Fun
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

It’s a Geeky Winter Wonderland!

0
0
snowflakesmain

There’s a blizzard of geeky snowflake templates out there for free download, from Game of Thrones to Batman to Doctor Who. Image by Lisa Kay Tate.

I’ve been making snowflakes since I was a little gremlin stealing my mom’s “good scissors” to cut up leftover squares of tissue and gift wrap into little paper blizzards.

star wars flakes

Anthony Herrera’s elaborate Stars Wars snowflakes, including this Wampa and Darth Vader design, are part of what sent me down the snowflake rabbit hole. Image by Lisa Kay Tate.

In 2012, graphic artist Anthony Herrera released his first batch of Star Wars-themed snowflake templates, creating a chance to build a winter wonderland for fanboys and fangirls. Herrera created follow-up patterns in 2013, as well as this year, each X-Wing, Jedi, and Droid pattern more elaborate than the next.

Not only have these made my fingers bleed from trying to create them, they set me on a quest to see what other fandoms have been captured in this favorite holiday season art form.

It turns out, there are plenty of geeky snowflake designs to suit nearly every fandom for those willing to take the polar paper plunge in into the world of geeky snowflakes:

Disney. Herrera has also dabbled in the Disney designs, with seven Frozen-themed templates, featuring individual characters, including Elsa’s snowman bodyguard, Marshmallow.

For some simpler designs, Disney Family offers some ideas featuring the classic Mickey head silhouette.

Fans of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas can find several templates for Jack Skellington’s spider snowflake featured in the movie. A really simple pattern and tutorial can be found on the Instructables site.

Game of Thrones. Designer Krystal Higgins has created some beautiful snowflake patterns based on each of the nine main houses in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series. Unlike the actual series, these are suitable for display for all ages. These patterns range in difficulty from fairly simple (House of Tyrell) to unbelievably tricky (House of Baratheon).

I'm not going to lie, this can get a little addictive...and painful after awhile. Image by Lisa Kay Tate.

I’m not going to lie, this can get a little addictive…and painful after awhile. Image by Lisa Kay Tate.

For a good way to get some practice with these designs, try out Higgins’ Game of Thrones Valentine heart patterns.

Superheroes. Comic Book Resources has a few reasonably easy DC and Marvel hero snowflake patterns based on Batman, Storm, Wonder Woman, and Iron Man. Compared to the some of the other designs featured in this post, these will take a lot less effort and time to create. That doesn’t mean they don’t look cool. The Wonder Woman and Batman are especially fun to make.

Doctor Who. The Whovian snowflake obsession is like the TARDIS: It’s bigger than it appears. I’ve uncovered several sites and crafters who sharing Doctor Who-themed patterns. There are TARDIS patterns aplenty as well as Daleks, weeping angels, sonic screwdrivers, Cybermen, adipose, and even one from my favorite episode, The Empty Child. Epic Geekdom and Oodly Crafting are two of the better resources, the later of which has somehow created a intricate, eye-crossing Gallifreyan circular text that I haven’t had the nerve to try out yet.

I’ve also run across many other templates including designs for BBC’s Sherlock, steampunk designs, pirates, and other assorted fandoms.

Now, I warn novice winter warlocks, many of these designs will take a few unsuccessful attempts to get them looking halfway decent. Even more practiced snowflake-makers might end up with a few wadded-up snow failures around their feet. A couple of the links, including Herrera’s, do have some very detailed tutorials on how to fold these patterns, but this doesn’t mean these will turn out perfect first go round. This skill takes practice and patience…and some excess paper, good scissors, and a sometimes a really, really sharp X-Acto knife.

If some of these patterns seem too confounding to master, take a look at some of the artwork by artist Kit Cameo. Cameo doesn’t provide templates for her designs, although originals and re-cuts of her incredible pieces are available for sale.

Some of artist Kit Cameo's original flake designs. Images courtesy of the artist.

Some of artist Kit Cameo’s original flake designs. Images courtesy of the artist.

Cameo’s gallery of snowflakes and other paper art not only shows how detailed and impressive the art of snowflake cutting can be under the right pair of hands and scissors, it might serve as inspiration.

So, wrap up those fingers and grease the scissors, because it’s time to get geeky and let it snow!

The post It’s a Geeky Winter Wonderland! appeared first on GeekMom.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images