Tie Dye Snowflakes

This is a fun and simple winter project- there are a few versions of this floating around on the internet. It seems to be geared towards younger students, but I loved making them and knew

my middle school kids would as well! I like projects that use everyday objects

that kids can try at home as well.

You just need some coffee filters (basket style) and watercolours and water. 

You could also try using waterbased markers for this as well.

Liquid inks or liquid watercolours would come out much more vibrant, so use those if you have them.

Fold your filter in half 4-5 times. Cut lots of shapes and notches out from all sides.

I encourage kids to cut away lots of the filter- that way you can get a more frilly,

complex snowflake.

We used tempera discs for the painting step. Wet the entire folded snowflake first (using a wet paintbrush), then paint on colours on both sides, making sure the color is pretty intense and it passes through all the layers.

Paint, paint, paint... then flip it over and paint the other side...

We used clothespins to write our names on the snowflakes....

Then left them on a shelf to dry overnight.

The next class, carefully (they are very fragile) unfold them and carefully

glue stick them to a square piece of paper. 

These were made by Grade 7 students.

Ta da!

Three snowflakes layered together!

this student layered together two snowflakes.


These were made by Grade 6 students: