Wood Snowflake Decoration Made From Wood Shims

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Square feature of a wood snowflake decoration sitting on a chair on top of a basket of birch logs and pinecones with a clear glass vase of willows on the side.

This beautiful wood snowflake decoration is easy to make. Just pick up a pack of wood shims and a few other supplies from the hardware store to get started.

I love decorations you can keep up well after Christmas and snowflake decor is perfect to display all winter long.

This decoration is large, about twelve inches in diameter. It looks beautiful on a mantel, in a basket on the porch, or as a decoration on your front door.

Check out the video below for more details on this easy craft!

If you’re having a winter wedding, make these beautiful and inexpensive snowflake decorations for the reception.

I’m using this decoration indoors so I only needed to use wood glue. Wood glue creates a strong bond to unfinished wood shims but if you’d like to make a snowflake to use as an outdoor decoration you may want to use a combination of wood glue and small tack nails or use a silicone-based adhesive like GE GE500 Silicone 2+ Window and Door Caulk.

Below are the instructions, photos, and a short video that shows how to make this beautiful snowflake decoration.

DIY Decorative Wood Snowflake – How-to Video

How-to video.

Supplies

Photo of the supplies used to make a wood snowflake decoration.
  • 12-inch Wood shims (can use 8 inches though)
  • Wood glue
  • Craft clamps
  • Paint (I’m using white chalk paint and silver acrylic paint as an accent color)
  • A chip brush
  • A ruler and pencil
  • A sanding block (optional)
  • A vise and a small hand saw

How to Make a Decorative Wood Snowflake – 4 Easy Steps

STEP 1: Glue four shims together

Overlap and glue four 12-inch wood shims together at the center with wood glue as shown below.

Glue four shims together at the center as a base for your snowflake.
Glue four 12-inch wood shims together at the center.

STEP 2: Cut Three Inch Pieces

Use a ruler and mark each shim at the 3-inch point. You’ll need sixteen 3-inch pieces to complete the snowflake design.

Cut wood shims using a handsaw and vice. Don’t worry if your pieces are a little rough, you can lightly sand the edges if needed.

Measure and cut smaller pieces to make your snowflake 3-inches long.
Measure and mark 3-inch pieces.
Secure your wood shim in a vice to grip and use a handsaw to cut 3-inch pieces.
Use a handsaw and a vice to cut sixteen 3-inch shim pieces.

STEP 3: Finish the snowflake

Use a generous amount of wood glue to glue the smaller pieces in place as shown below. There are ‘V’ shapes on four of the ends and I used one cross piece on the other four ends of my snowflake. To finish the design, I added four more pieces to make a ‘+’ in the middle. Check out the video above the supplies list for more details.

Photo of snowflake after wood gluing all the pieces on.
Assemble the pieces as shown and glue in place with wood glue.

STEP 4: let dry Then Paint

Place a heavy object on your snowflake while drying and use craft clamps where needed.

Add clamps as needed while the glue dries.

Once the glue has dried (about 2 hours), you can paint your snowflake and glue a string to the back if you’d like to hang it up.

Photo of a large 12-inch handmade decorative wood snowflake on a wood chair, sitting on a tobacco basket filled with birch logs and frosted pine cones with a vase of pussy willow to the side. This image is a vertical, pinnable image. Please pin this photo to your Pinterest craft boards to come back to this easy DIY tutorial later!

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