One of the treats of holidays long past was an activity that involved folding, then cutting a sheet or strip of paper to reveal a lacy snowflake or a chain of identical spruce trees, connected at their sides so it looked like branches brushing up against each other. The result was invariably a delightful surprise.
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Accordion folds and judicious cutting can produce a string of paper dolls or a variety of geometric patterns. Instructions are available for creating a five-pointed star, any letter of the alphabet, various crosses and polygons, and even complex patterns, such as a star within a star. In some cases, both the snipped sheet and the “hole” represent desired forms.