Free 3D snowflake SVG files

How each one becomes 3D

The slotted snowflakes are flat pieces with a narrow slot along the upright arm. In the two-piece ones, one slot runs from the top tip to the middle and the other from the bottom tip to the middle, so the pieces slide into each other and lock at right angles. In the three-piece one each piece is left solid along a different third of the axis, and the three cross sixty degrees apart.

The rolled snowflake is the classroom classic made exact: six squares, each with three nested squares cut in it that stay joined at two opposite corners. Rolling the free corners of each nested square together, first to the front and then to the back, turns the square into a twisted arm. The relief snowflake and the ball need no slots at all, only the fold lines, which are cut as rows of short slits.

Matching the slot to your material

A slot has to be as wide as the material is thick, or a little wider. The slots are 0.6 mm wide in the file at 100 mm, so they grow with the size you cut: each note gives the slot width at its suggested size. For 3 mm plywood on a laser, scale a two-piece snowflake until its slot measures 3 mm, which makes each piece about 240 mm tall, or widen the slot in your software before cutting smaller.

For paper and thin card, a slot wider than the card is no problem: add a dot of glue where the pieces cross. The rolled snowflake wants ordinary 80 to 120 gsm paper, which rolls without creasing; card is too stiff for it. Hang any of them by a thread through the gap at the top of a slot or round an arm.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions