Spinning star tree decoration ... ... (rough draft)

I just thought I'd write a quick post to carry on from the one I did about the spinning tree decoration.
This is more or less the same thing, only it's a star and instead of slicing it up I've cut out smaller star shapes, which spin within each other.

Here's a picture (it's a prototype)

Cardboard wasn't the best material to spray with paint.

Okay so it's not neat and tidy, but it'll do as a model to see if the idea works well, and also to work out the best way to make it. In this case something harder than cardboard will be better, especially if you intend to spray it silver or gold for example.

The problem was that the cardboard soaked up the paint and became very floppy, it's okay now it's dried but for a moment I thought it might fall apart.

Next time I'll use wood (maybe thin plywood) ;-)

It's easy to make, basically you find a shape, I used a star seeing as it's nearly christmas, but a circle or other shape would work just as well. You can see that it's a star within a star within a star, they all turn independently. 

You cut out the shape from your chosen material, then you draw a smaller shape inside it, and then another until you get to the middle, I left a fairly large shape in the middle, if I'd have used wood I could have gone smaller.

Now you want to remove some of the sections you've drawn so that there's a gap between each shape, like the picture below (which you can copy if you want to use a star, just print it out and use it as a template) I've marked parts in red, these are the parts you want to remove, you should be left with 3 sections.

Star template - 

You may want to make it smaller, or larger. Note the red sections.

You should get the idea from the template, once you've removed the red sections you can then assemble the decoration, I used a needle and thread to join the pieces, with beads separating each part so that they can spin without catching each other.

If you use wood you will need to use a drill bit to make the holes for the thread or wire if you prefer and what you should end up with is something like the first pictures (only some what neater) I will update this post with pictures of a wooden one if I get round to making it before christmas day ;-) if not have fun making your own ones, you can get the kids to decorate them with glitter and what ever else you feel like, have fun.

Thanks for reading.

Spinning christmas tree ornament ... ...

Just a short post on another of our christmas creations, at this rate we will have more or less refitted the tree in handmade decorations.

Here it is.

My wife had mentioned making tree decorations like the one above out of some foam sheet we have, but after looking at the thickness of the foam we decided it wouldn't work very well.

So this afternoon I set about making one out of wood.

They are simple enough to make, you need a few tools though, mainly a saw of some kind (a small hacksaw, or coping saw will do) and a thin drill bit and drill (a 2mm drill bit) all you have to do is mark out your shape on some wood (I used a scrap piece of 10mm tongue and grove) I've chosen a tree shape, but you could do a snowman, or a circular decoration, you could also use a star shape and instead of slicing it like I have you could cut a series of stars out of the main one, so that they all spin inside each other (I'll most likely write a post about it at some point)

Once you have marked your shape out you need to divide it into equal sections, I made my sections about 10mm (1cm) thick, then mark the centre of your shape, this makes it easier to align the holes you will drill through each section.

A closer up picture - 

It's not really wonky, it's the camera angle ;-)

Use the saw to slice up your shape, try and keep the pieces in the order your saw them (although with a simple shape it's easy to figure out where the bits go) then take each piece and drill a hole in the middle (use the centre line you made as a guide) do this for all the parts, if you use wood you may want to give each part a sand after you've cut and drilled them for a smoother look.

Then the fun bit, you can use thin gauge wire,string,wool or cotton thread for this part, you'll need some small beads or something to put between each section as well.

I used a larger bead at the bottom of the tree, but one the same size as the others would do, you could also use a small bell for extra jingle. Thread your chosen material through each part, you can use the first bead/bell to tie the string or wire to, so it doesn't all slide off.

After each section add a bead, then another section, then a bead and so on, until you get to the top, at this point you can either use the last section, or use a large bead, or bell or maybe if you have some star shaped beads you could use them, that's the beauty of crafts, you can do what ever you feel like, it's about imagination. Then just leave a loop to hang it on the tree with.

Here it is again, in case you missed it at the start of the post ;-)

It doesn't take long to do, and you can get the kids involved, although you may want to do the sawing or cutting, then you can decorate them however you want, I've used some silver spray and a little glitter spray, you can use glue and glitter or anything else you have.

You don't need to use wood either, some thick cardboard would work just as well, and if you don't have a saw this may be a better option, it should work in the same way.

And there you have it, a spinning christmas tree decoration.

Thanks for reading.