These stars were a fun whimsical addition to my Christmas decor this year. I wanted to make something that had a big impact, without breaking the bank. I paid less than $20 for all of the materials for this, and have enough left over materials to make 4x this much.
I made a drawing initially of what I wanted it to look like when I was done.
Here are the materials you will need:
Materials:
- cardstock paper in multiple colors, if you want. I got mine on sale at Hobby Lobby.
- glue
- scissors
- fishing line
Step one:
Creating the perfect square. The first part of making these stars, is making the perfect square. The cardstock paper I bought came in 8.5″ x 11″, so I needed to make them into perfect squares. The best way to do this it to take a corner of the paper, and fold it diagonally until the edges of the paper line up.
You will need two perfect squares per star. The size of the square does not matter, as long as it is a perfect square. After I folded the paper to get the perfect square, I cut off the extra paper from the rectangle and set it aside.
Step two:
After you have two squares, next comes folding. You will need to fold the square across both diagonals, and across both flat ways creating a plus sign pattern in the folds, and an ‘X’ the other way. Do this two times. I have several different sized squares, because I wanted the paper stars to be in different sizes. I used the left over part of the rectangle that I cut off to make more squares until I couldn’t anymore.
Step Three:
Next comes cutting. The next step is to place a small cut on each of the plus shaped lines, NOT the diagonals. The cut needs to just be about half of the length of the line. Make sure not to go too far.
Make sure there are 4 cuts. Do this to both squares.
Step four:
This step is more folding. Next find the diagonal lines. You are going to fold in towards the diagonal lines creating little triangle points on each end. It will look like little tents with two flaps when you are done. Do this to both squares, so two times.
Step five:
Next I like to add the fishing line or string at this point, so that they are easier to hang. Adding later is not an issue, but I like that it is cleaner inside of the point when added at this step. I tape the fishing line along one of the diagonal lines, making sure it is secure.
Step six:
Next comes gluing each of the tent flaps down on top of each other to create four points on each star. It does not matter which flap is on top or bottom. Once all four tent flaps have been glued down, you will have a flat back, and a 3D star shape on the front. I like to pinch the center of the 3D side to make the center more crisp and folded. You will do all of this twice, once for each square.
Step Seven:
Lastly, is gluing the stars together. You have two now, and will glue the flat sides of each star together. This creates the full 3D star shape. Each finished star takes two square pieces using all of the steps above. The string should come out of one of the point of the star.
I used thumb tacks to hang them in different lengths around my fireplace. I inter- mixed a few larger 18 point stars I also made awhile ago. These were a lot more difficult and time consuming, and I used a pattern I found online. They are called moravian stars if you feel like looking them up.
and thats it! Happy Crafting!
-Amanda