Valentine's Day Crafts

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Make Hanging Christmas Stars.

Our house is starting to look a lot like Christmas! It's SUCH fun! I just LOVE the holidays!!!

To add to the holiday ambiance in our home, we made these gorgeous hanging stars... they bring such magic!
They look so pretty hanging all around! They also look complicated to make, don't they? The amazing thing is that they are really easy to make... all that you need to make one is two pieces of square paper, a few folds and some glue and, in minutes, you'll have your own pretty stars to hang where ever you please.

What you'll need;
Square paper or card (any size will do... if your paper is not square, cut it into a square before you start.)
Scissors
Glue (I find glue dots work the best as there's no drying time)
Ribbon

Start by folding your square paper in half, making a rectangle...

Fold this rectangle in half again, making a square...

Open your folded square up...

Now fold you big square diagonally (corner to corner), making a triangle...
Fold your big triangle in half again, along the middle, making a smaller triangle...

When you open your paper, this is what your folds look like...
Use your scissors to cut along the 4 folds on the straight sides of your paper. Cut a little less than half way up the fold...

Lie your paper flat, upside down. Fold cut paper back, along the diagonals folds (as in photo) making points at the corners of the paper.

These points will be the points of your star.

Fold all cuts into points.

Now for the gluing... put a dab of glue (or a glue dot) onto one side of each point of the star...
Pull the other side of the point over the side with the glue and stick... this makes your 3D star point.

Repeat for each point...

One side of your star is ready.

Repeat all folding, cutting and sticking steps with your second piece of square paper... you will now have the two sides of your square.

Position them, one on top of the other, with the middle points facing outwards and stick them together using a few dabs of glue or glue dots and...

Voila!

Glue your hanging ribbon onto your star.

Your star is ready for hanging!
They really do look lovely anywhere... so bright and colorful!We have some in our window, some hanging from our beams and even more decorating our cabinets.
And they really are easy to make, I promise! Once you make one and get the hang of the folding and cutting, you will be able to churn these pretty stars out in a matter of minutes. They make very sweet holiday gifts for friends and neighbors too... go on, have a go, make some stars!

Blessings and magic!

48 comments:

RunninL8 said...

Oh, my gosh! those are GORGEOUS!!! They look store bought-so perfect! Thanks for the detailed tutorial!

Stephanie said...

They're beautiful!
We made some different ones last year to hang outside... but I think I like these better! :)
We'll put it on our list today... we already have paper and glitter out this morning....
:)

Wyld Jane.. said...

they are brilliant will definately have to give them a go thanks x

Alexa said...

These are pretty! I'm going to have to give them a try. Thanks for the fun craft! :)

momma rae said...

just when i think i can't add one more craft to our days....you share this lovely tutorial! these are gorgeous! thanks for all you share in this space. so many wonderful projects and inspiration. :)

Anna said...

These are beautiful. I think I'll charge my hubby with this craft as he's the folding, cutting tinkerer.

Victoria Williams said...

I'll have to do this with the children I babysit for. They are so nice looking.

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

Wow, those are really cool! Thanks so much for the instructions, I'll be linking.

Anonymous said...

These are beautiful! Will be having a go at these this week. Thank you so much for sharing.

Diane at Crafty Passions said...

I am going to try these tomorrow!!
Thanks it looks so easy !!!
Diane

Beth said...

This is a beautiful tutorial. What kind of paper do you recommend? Beth

Louise said...

Thankyou, they are really lovely- I will have to keep my eye out for your glue dots, we will be making these as well.

Linda said...

These are stunning Donni, what a lovely tutorial, thank you:)

Phyllis said...

I love your tutorials. Thanks so much for sharing with us. I will have to make these...now where to fit them in...hmmm.
-Phyllis

Carin said...

Just found my way over from OLM. These are great! Must give them a go!

Christie said...

Oh, I want to try right now!

Phyllis said...

Well, we made them today and I linked over here for credit and instructions.
What fun!
-Phyllis

Angie said...

Oh these are wonderful. so easy, just the kind I like! I am going to make these this weekend!!!!

Anonymous said...

Those are fantastic! Thank you!

Shazronnie said...

Wow - I just made one and it's fabulous. I am definitely going to make lots and lots more!
I didn't have any glue dots, but a little piece of double sided tape worked fine.

themagiconions said...

Hope you guys have had fun making stars.
Beth, any paper works as the folding and cutting and gluing make them really strong... I love the gorgeously colorful scrapbook paper.
Shazronnie, thanks for the idea of double sided tape! Clever. And glue works fine too if you use paperclips to hold the glued paper in place for drying. Have fun and thanks for all the lovely comments... Blessings and magic.

Tiffany said...

These stars are amamzing & pretty easy to do! I love it! Thanks for sharing!

glor said...

These are so pretty! Thank you for sharing ... got to make these!

Charity said...

How sweet are these, thank you for sharing. I hope you and your family have a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Mama Thompson said...

I LOVE these...just put them in my folder for next year! Thanks for sharing!

Stephanie Lynn @Under the Table and Dreaming said...

Love these - I need to make some! Thanks for the tutorial! Happy Holidays!

Janelle said...

We loved making these stars, they are now dangling over many surfaces in my house - thanks for sharing!

Amy@TheLemonCottage said...

Great project. Thanks for the wonderful pictures and tutorial... even a klutzy crafter like me has hope with this project!
~Amy

Cheryl @ a pretty cool life. said...

Those are so pretty! What a fun decoration!

(and I totally have that same green and white scrapbook paper...I covered some jar lids with it a few months back LOL) Thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

My daughter and I made these this summer-- two months later they're still hanging on my curtains, and I have been informed that they will have to live there from now on. Such a fun craft, and one she can do most of herself (we used clear tape) Thank you :)

iamawhale said...

So beautiful stars~!
Hi! I'm a student from South Korea. I was finding an art program for children whom I teach.
I think I found it well!
We can use your 'gorgeous hanging stars'.
To show to our children and teachers, I posted this data with our website.
If you don't want, contanct me.
onlyhot_hj@naver.com
Bye~!

iamawhale said...

And thank you so much!!

Anonymous said...

GREAT IDEA - I linked it too mmy blog so I wont forget come Christmas! Thank you for the idea!

Rachel C said...

Made these tonight with my daughters and LOVE them!

amy @ kids in the studio said...

I just made one of these--so pretty and simple (although it's a little wonky because I had trouble gluing the two stars together!). It's hanging over our dining room table. :) Thanks for the tutorial!

Anonymous said...

We are going to LOVE making these for christmas... thank you so much for the tutorial!

Rachel~At the Butterfly Ball said...

These are just what we were looking for! Simply gorgeous! Thanks so much for posting this!!!

Peggy said...

Thank you so very much! I just found your blog and am enjoying it immensely. Our boys are a bit older (teens who are not all that inclined to crafts any longer) but they loved these stars. We initially tried double stick tape but it didn't hold as well so I invested in my first box of glue dots. Where have I been? Those things are great! The guys were asking what they could get me for Christmas and now I have it. Glue dots and squared off pictures from old magazines!!! The ultimate craft kit! Do you mind if I copy your instructions and include them in the kits? I know my niece and nephew will love making these... (sorry about the book!)

Christine said...

What a wonderful blog! I don't have young children at home anymore, but some of these ideas can be "translated" to adults. I LOVE this star, and your pics/instructions are great. I will start one this week.

Anonymous said...

When I was young, we had a family sell these beautiful stars door to door. My mother would always buy a few. They were dipped in wax with glitter sprinkled on the wax. I've always wanted to make some and now I know how. Thank so much.

Jen said...

I have an infant classroom that I just renovated and I was looking for several stars to purchase to hang from the ceiling over the crib area. I came across this article and this would be perfect! If they ever fell down the babies wouldn't get hurt and I can choose colors and patterns that match the room and that will catch the eyes of the babies! Plus it's much more cost effective. Thanks so much! I can't wait to make them!

Jessa Minnet said...

Thank you for the easy-to-follow instructions and beautiful photos!

Jessa Minnet said...

So beautiful! (And I don't often say that!)

Me a mom at home said...

Great post!Thank you for sharing this beautiful craft!Me and Miss M had fun making a huge one the other day. It looks lovely!

Andromeda Jazmon said...

Wanted to let you know we made these stars and loved them! I blogged about it and linked to you.

gail said...

love the stars, made them today. thank you for sharing this wonderful idea!

Lynn said...

I love these and when I was trying them out, I couldn't seem to get the two sides to stick together. For one, my stars didn't seem to lay flat enough so I opened up the stuck together parts and made a less tight fold - that helped my stars lay more flat. There also seems to be very little surface left to stick to the other star (since there is a hole in the middle), so I'm thinking about putting an extra piece of paper there to cover the hole and provide more surface for the stick-together part! Otherwise, they are beautiful. I just wanted to mention it because no one else seemed to have this problem so I thought maybe I was doing something different than others. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

As Lynn I had some little problems making them stick together, but as my man mentioned, I should have used a ruler to make it all straight and right.
I am so glad I found this tuitorial since I have looked for one since I saw them hanging in a Waldorf classroom earlier this year. I made a link to the tuitorial from my blogg, hope you don't mind.

Have a lovely christmas :)

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