It is always fun to cut snowflakes from paper, but this year, I wanted to make a few more durable ones from wood to hang outside our house. There were some templates available online, but I thought it would be more fun for my son and I to design our own. I am recording the steps here in case anyone else wants to try it (and so I remember when I want to add more snowflakes to our garland next year!). The great thing about having electronic files is that you can cut different sizes of snowflakes. I cut these large ones from wood, but I also cut smaller versions in paper to make Christmas cards.
A new window will appear. Right-click and select
Copy Image. Paste the image into Preview on Mac or a paint program and save it as type .png.
Use
www.pngtosvg.com to convert your .png file to a vector image. Upload your file and set the number of colors to 2. Then click
Generate. Once your converted image has appeared, click
Download SVG and follow the directions to download it.
Most laser cutters can cut .svg files directly, but mine wanted to go over every line multiple times, which increased the time to cut and the amount of burning around the edges of the snowflake. To eliminate this, open your .svg file in Inkscape. Select the image, and go to
Object/Fill and
Stroke…
Click the x to set
Fill to
No paint. Then select the
Stroke paint tab and choose
Flat color. Now you should see just the outline of your snowflake.
If you plan to hang your snowflake, now may be a good time to add a small hole near the end of one of the branches.
Save your file.
You are ready to cut your snowflake on the laser cutter!
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