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.

A star is born ... ...

Instead of buying a load of new christmas decorations this year we have been making our own, we have made them out of paper,pine cones,card and for the stars below wire and string, much more fun than fighting through shops looking for decorations that probably won't last half as long, it's good for the kids to do some christmas crafts as well.

Here's the stars -

They may not be to every one's taste.

The colour of the silver spray didn't really come out in the picture, they are easy enough to make, all you need is some wire (I used gardening wire) and some string, any string will do, or wool. You can also make them from string instead of wire, but it's a little harder to keep it altogether, you can spray them what ever colour you like, we used silver and some glitter spray, you can use gold as well.

Making them doesn't take long, although if you spray them you will need to wait a short while for the paint to dry. If you use wire you will need a jig (no fiddles involved) to make the basic star shape, unless of course you feel like making them free hand.

To make the jig you'll need some nails, a piece of wood, a hammer and a template, which you can either print out from your pc or draw on a bit of paper, then all you do is place the paper onto the wood and hammer nails into it at all the angles of your shape.

The jig with nails already hammered in - 

It should look something like this.

It makes it a lot easier to bend the wire into shape using a jig. Next take a piece of string and wind it round all the nails to make a star, basically you use the string to measure how much wire you will need, you want to leave a little extra wire so you can twist it together.

Using the string to measure - 

Measuring done.

Time to get some wire, you can see that I've used slightly more string than is needed, this will make it easier to fix the wire together. Next get your wire and use the string to measure out a length of it, then cut it (I should have mentioned that you may need wire cutters, or pliers) then all you need to do is wind the wire around the nails in the same way you did the string, thinner wire will bend easier, I got ours from the garden section at b&q.

Once that's done twist the wire together where the two ends join, again pliers will do the job, depending on how thick the wire is, then all that's left is to wind your string of choice around the wire frame, when you are happy with it, either tie the string to the frame and cut off any extra, or you can use a spot of glue to fix it. 

You don't have to spray them, you could use paints from a pot, get the kids to do it or you could just cover them in glue and glitter or anything else that you feel like really, it's up to you.

A close up - 

Still didn't manage to get the glitter to show, it's there I promise.

And that's it, they may not be flashy shiny plastic type shop bought ones, but to be honest I think they look better, and they'll last for a while, and even if you don't want to hang them on your tree if you got the kids to decorate them they will have had a great time, and that's what it's all about, and you don't have to make stars, why not try different shapes ? like snowmen or christmas trees ?

Thanks for reading.