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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Day 8: Woven Star Tree Toppers with Heidi of Mom's Crafty Space

Hi everyone! I'm Heidi from Mom's Crafty Space, and I'm super excited to be here today to share this tutorial for an inexpensive Christmas decoration that packs a lot of style! Woven stars made from straw or paper have been a holiday tradition for hundreds of years, and I'm going to show you how we can use modern materials to supersize our woven star into a shimmering tree topper.

All you'll need to make this gorgeous star is a sheet of 12" x 12" glittered cardstock, scissors and glue (hot glue works best). If you have single sided glitter paper you will need to glue two sheets back-to-back to create a double sided sheet.


First, take your paper and cut it into (20) 1/2" wide strips.



Fold two strips in half and crease to mark the center. Line up the center marks and glue the two strips to form 90 degree angles.


Add four more vertical strips (two on either side of your original + shape), weaving the horizontal piece through the vertical strips. Glue at all places where the paper intersects.


Continue weaving until you have a grid of 5x5 woven strips (the tails should be around 4" long).


This step is the trickiest to explain, so hopefully the photos will help! In each corner, take the two inner corner strips and join the tips, making a twist in each strip before gluing them together. Do this with the next interior set of corner strips as well, so that you end up with two twisted points on each corner.


When all your corners are twisted and joined, it should look like this.


Now make another!


Turn one of your pieces upside down and rotate it so that the tips form an 8-pointed star when placed on top of the first piece.


Weave the remaining tails into the points, glue down and trim the ends.


 Voila, an easy peasy and super cheap way to add a lot of sparkle and shine to your holiday season! These also look incredible when hung in small groups from the ceiling - use white or silver paper to create a flurry of shimmery snowflakes that's sure to impress!


Now go find a tree (preferably one where all the lights will light up for you!) and add your shiny new topper! Happy Holidays!

Be sure to stop by Mom's Crafty Space for our other fun tutorials, recipes and holiday ideas!




35 comments:

  1. Oh wow I love this! It's so easy and looks so so cool. Must go and try this, like right now ;)
    xo,
    wink

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  2. This is so pretty! I pinned it because I definitely want to make this!

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  3. Thanks for having me over here today Tristin! Glad to see that people are enjoying the tutorial! :)

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  4. Wow! That looks so intricate and beautiful--I love it!

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  5. Really beautiful and definately something I am going to do. Thanks Heidi for the great tutorial.

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  6. What a cool idea! I've been needing to replace our current tree topper with something that wouldn't make the tree top-heavy. This is perfect!

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  7. thanks so much. i just made this in silver and gold - so lovely and exactly what i needed!

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  8. Thanks so much for sharing this project!! I just made one in about 30 minutes but I modified it a bit. I used double sided patterned scrapbook paper and cut my strips 6" x 1/4" (half size). It is the perfect size to use as an ornament! I will be making more with the kids this week!

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  9. I loved making this tonight, the only thing I had a problem with is I couldn't find double sided paper so I glued two sheets of glitter card stock together which made it almost impossible to make the twists. Next time (and there will be a next time) I'll use regular glitter paper instead of card stock if I have to glue them back to back.

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  10. Fantastic! On my "to do" for next year. Thanks for sharing.

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  11. I made this for our tree. It went together quickly and looks very nice. I used heavy (but not card stock) pearly paper. Thanks!

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  12. I love this idea and just "Pinned You" on my Pinterest site! Thanks for such a great tutorial and a wonderful idea!

    Blessings,
    Donna

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  13. I made one of these yesterday and it's beautiful! Thanks for a great tutorial! http://www.thingsforboys.com/2012/11/glittery-tree-topper.html

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  14. Your topper looks gorgeous! Just wanted to inform you that this star is copyrighted. The owner, Billie Ruth Sudduth, is a basket maker and sells the patterns for it. She has been contacting all of the websites with tutorials to this project and asking them to remove the tutorials or face penalty.

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    1. While Billie Ruth has a valid copyright on her own written instructions to create this, the design itself cannot be copyrighted as it is in the public domain. These are traditional German and Scandinavian Christmas/Advent stars and have been in popular use since the 1880s. Billie Ruth claims to have designed this in 1984, but the instructions were actually published in a 1973 copy of Sunset Magazine. There is no copyright infringement here as the claim of design copyright by Billie Ruth is invalid as she did not create it and cannot hold intellectual property rights on something in the public domain.

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  15. Great tutorial, thanks so much! Here's my version: http://craftingknowledge.blogspot.com/2012/12/star-challenge-day-ten-woven-eight.html

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  17. Glittered cardstock worked well. I cut the strips and then glued them back to back w/ Aleene's tacky glue, to get 2 sided glitter. I assembled the star without waiting for the tacky glue to dry. The moisture from the glue made the cardstock more flexible, so the twists were easy to form. Hot glue is a must for assembly. The stars are beautiful, and so easy to make. Would make a great inexpensive gift. Mine cost less than $3.00 each. Thanks for such a great idea!

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  18. merci beaucoup.......

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  19. Oh wow I absolutely LOVE that star topper! We just finished making ours for this Christmas. I wish I saw this tutorial earlier :(. We made a simpler one here is a picture: http://aamaksimchuk.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/o-christmas-tree/

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  20. Love this idea!!!! Thanks for sharing!

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  21. I think I may try this!! Thanks so much for sharing!!

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  22. thanks for the tutorial, nice idea, but aren´t they 25 strips, instead of 20?.

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  23. wow its very impressive post i really like it and much appreciate your effort
    Christmas Eve

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  24. Thank you so much for sharing. I made two, one with Pearl white wide quilling paper, and another light blue. So pretty. I love to quill and I saw these . I'm making my family an ornament each.

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  25. wow its very impressive post i really like BA 2nd Year Result and much appreciate your effort

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  26. Thank you SOOOO much for this tutorial. I'm going to make a whole bunch of these!

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  27. Just modified this a bit in the Cricut app to cut out the holes instead of cutting multiple strips! Can’t wait to try it!

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