Winter Snowflakes in Photoshop

Let it snow! I'm ready for the cold season and skiing and generally everything to be soft and muted from the colors of winter. Want to try your hand at making digital snowflakes? Using Photoshop it's just a matter of a few quick steps to turn a rectangle into a one of a kind snow flake.

You'll need Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (or any other graphic editor that can handle layers).

Make a Snowflake

1. Open a new canvas (File, New) sized at 500 x 500 pixels. It should be in RGB mode with a white background.

2. Pick out a nice blue color for your snowflake. Use your rectangle shape tool to draw it out on your canvas. Then, grab your polygonal lasso tool and select the bottom corner of your rectangle. We're trying to get a long triangle. Hit the backspace key on your keyboard once your selection is made to delete it.

3. Now we get to start making the "look" of a snowflake. Using your polygonal lasso tool again, start selecting irregular segments all the way down your triangle. Don't worry about making things look perfect - a snowflake is never "perfect" but always beautiful. When you have selected all the way around the triangle, click "Select" and choose "Invert Selection". Then, hit the backspace key on your keyboard. It will delete all the little segments.

4. Duplicate your cut-up triangle (right-click its layer and choose "Duplicate Layer"). Then, click "Edit", choose "Transform", and click "Flip Horizontal". You'll need to move the duplicated layer to the side to make it line up. Finally, merge the layer down (right-click the layer and choose "Merge Down") to make a single snowflake "arm".

5. Last step! Duplicate your snowflake arm, and then click "Edit", choose "Transform", and click "Rotate". This allows you to swing each arm into place. Repeat the process until you've got a complete snowflake.

Try using different shapes - the rain drop shape is a good one - or varying the sizes of the arms. Use your imagination and your snowflakes can become intricate pieces of art.