Welcome to the second edition of the series, Never Underestimate the Possibilities of Paper!

A Seven-Sided Star is made in the same manner as the five-sided star from yesterday’s post.

Start with a heptagon (all sides must be equal)

Cut it out and then make folds like so:

Make a little mark about halfway towards the center of the shape along the fold on each flat side (you can see the little dots in the picture above). Cut along the fold ending at the dot. Then fold the cut edges toward what will be the points of the star (they will overlap). Like so:

There will not be a gap in between the flaps (as in the five pointed star), so you just sort of eyeball it when taping them together.

And..

Ta Da!

Septagramtastic!

To make a snowflake, start with a square of paper. Fold it in half diagonally.

Again.

And again.

Now cut here. Through the taller pieces too.

Like so.

Now cut chunks out of your long skinny triangle, holding all of the layers together while you do it.

It helps to use scissors like the ones pictured. Since you are making tiny cuts.

Cut, cut, cut. Until you have something like this:

Unfold and:

Ta Da!

Another:

And another:

No two are alike!

In keeping with my alliterative title…

The scroll:

A few years ago the Spy made a “number scroll” as part of a kindergarten project. The project was simple. Starting from zero, fill in the numbers left to right in a grid like this:

 

When you reach the end of a page, tape on another grid and keep going.

It is something like twenty feet long and goes to 4,581! A good project to teach kids to visualize how “big” numbers are and to practice counting.

But of course, you could make a scroll with something other than numbers.

And why, pray tell, would you want to do that? Or make the snowflakes or the star? As I explained in the last post: It’s not that these little pursuits in paper are particularly practical. It’s bodybuilding for your brain. A motile meditation for your mood. A kinetic craft to coax your creative crops.