I was walking by the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago when I saw giant white snowflakes on the windows of the entrance and I fell in love. I wanted my own snowflake window clings, so I decided I would make some. While I did like the white ones, what I really wanted was snowflakes that looked like they were made of ice crystals, you know, like real snowflakes. So I thought I would start my materials search by looking at window privacy film. There are a lot of designs to choose from, but the one that spoke to me is listed below. These do not have an adhesive backing, it’s a static window cling, so they can be removed and put back up again season after season.
Materials:
- Window Privacy Film – Both of these brands worked for me: CottonColors and Funfox
- Snowflake Template – If you would like the design I cut out in the instructions below, you can access that through Cricut’s FREE software: Design Space. Alternatively, Canva has a lot of good free snowflake clipart images.
- Scissors
- Marker
- Printer + Printer Paper
Instructions for Making Snowflake Window Clings:
Step 1 – Choose a snowflake template online.
Step 2 – Adjust to your preferred size, then print out a snowflake template onto a piece of paper.
Step 3 – Place your window film on top of the printed template. IMPORTANT: The window film has a thin plastic backing on the reverse side that you will peel away later. One side of the window film will feel textured and the other side smooth. The smooth side is the side with the thin plastic backing. It is VERY IMPORTANT to place the window film onto the template TEXTURED SIDE DOWN and smooth side (thin plastic backing) facing up.
Step 4 – Use a marker to trace the snowflake onto the window film. This is why it is important to lay the window film textured side down. You want to trace onto the thin plastic backing NOT the window film itself.
Step 5 – Cut out the snowflake.
Step 6 – Peel away the thin plastic backing.
Step 7 – Place the snowflake on window so that the smooth side is against the window and the textured side faces you. The instructions that come with the window film call for spraying the window down with soapy water then placing the cling onto the window. That sounded very messy to me so I decided to try something different. First, I cleaned my windows with windex. Next, I used a hair dryer to warm the snowflake cling itself, then I pressed it onto the window. I put these up over the course of several days as I did not cut all the snowflakes in one day. On some days I had sunny weather and the windows were warm and on other days I had cloudy weather and the windows were cold, making it more difficult for the snowflake to stick. On the cloudy days, I also used the hairdryer to warm the spot on the window where I planned to place the snowflake and that worked well.
I really struggled to get good pictures of the snowflake window clings to show just how great they look in person. I took pictures in all different types of lighting and times of day because they look different in sun vs. clouds, in morning vs. nighttime. Personally my favorite view of them is when it’s sunny outside because they really reflect a large array of beautiful colors, just like a crystal would, but I found that the hardest picture to capture.
Cut Snowflake Window Clings with your Cricut
I did cut a snowflake out by hand just to make sure it could be done manually and look nice at the same time and I was extremely happy with how it turned out. But I own a Cricut machine and figured, why cut all these out by hand when I can have my machine do it for me! So that’s what I did for all but one of the snowflakes. However, after it was all said and done I am not actually sure how much time I really did save by using my Cricut.
While the Cricut does cut the snowflake into the film, the snowflakes still have to be weeded out of the film, which I found to take quite a bit of time. If you’re not familiar with weeding, I would describe it like this: if you have ever made cookie dough and then used cookie cutters to cut shapes out, it’s similar to that. Even though you press the cookie cutter into the dough and it “cuts” the shape, the dough is not 100% cut away from the shape and you still have to pull the excess dough away from your shape being careful not to tear your shape by pulling too hard or quick. So it was like that, plus the fact that the film is clear in color makes it more difficult to see the cut lines, so you have to be careful that you’re pulling in the right place so you don’t stretch or tear the actual snowflake. None of this is an issue if you are doing this by hand and cutting along a black traced line with your scissors.
I put my snowflake window clings up as Christmas decor, but I love them so much, I plan to leave them up all winter long. I would love to see how your snowflake window clings turned out – post your photos on Facebook or Instagram and tag us @stencildiystudios.
Author: Nicole Bolin
Interested in more DIY Winter decor? Check out these posts!
