Instructions to Make Lighted Snowflake Outdoor Decorations

Paint your dowels; allow paint to dry completely before you proceed.

Turn your front or backyard into a winter wonderland regardless of how much it snows in your area. Hang lighted snowflake decorations from your trees, large bushes and your porch eaves to create a twinkling snowscape. Use a string of battery powered white lights for each large snowflake. Change around the shapes of your Styrofoam forms or use longer or shorter dowels to create different style snowflakes for your DIY winter yard display.

Things You'll Need

• White or silver exterior paint 6 18-inch dowels, 1/8-inch diameter 6 7½-inch dowels, 1/8-inch diameter Styrofoam ball, 6-inch diameter 3 Styrofoam circles, 6-inch diameter 3 Styrofoam circles, 3-inch diameter 3 small Styrofoam cones 6 large Styrofoam cones 30 Styrofoam balls, varying small sizes Craft glue Battery-powered string of LED lights, white

Instructions

1. Paint your dowels; allow paint to dry completely before you proceed.

2. Lay the ball on a flat surface; arrange your long dowels around the edges of the ball in an arrangement where all dowels are at an equal distance from each other. Mark these locations with small dots around the ball.

3. Stack by skewering onto each of 3 of the long dowels: small cone, small ball, large circle and large cone. Stack by skewering the remaining long dowels with this shape arrangement: two small balls, a small circle, a small ball and a large cone.

4. Skewer three small balls onto each short dowel.

5. Poke the ends of the long dowels into the spots you earlier marked on the ball, alternating shape arrangements. Pull out the dowels and put glue on the ends, then re-insert the dowels to increase the connection.

6. Connect your long dowels with the short dowels, attaching them crossways between each set of two dowels, at either the first small ball or the small circle.

7. Wrap the snowflake with your battery-powered lights to bring it to life.

Tips & Warnings

• Use LED battery powered lights since they have a much longer battery lifespan.

References

• Disney Family Fun: Super Snowflake

Resources

• Apartment Therapy: Snowflake Inspiration