Christmas crafts - Paper craft tutorial for origami stars ready for the festive season

All this cold weather is serving as a reminder that the festive season is fast approaching! If you're looking for simple Christmas ornaments to decorate your home and let in some of that festive cheer then this is the paper craft project for you! It's also great if you're looking for Christmas crafts for kids. This step by step tutorial will help you make these adorable chunky origami style stars.

I can remember learning how to make them at school and being enchanted by the simplicity - I ended up making hundreds! They can be strung into bracelets, put into bowls with other festive creations to grace the Christmas coffee table, hung on ribbons, stuck onto Christmas cards - the possibilities are endless with these versatile little stars! So, what are we waiting for, lets get cracking.

First you will need to cut some strips of paper, approximately a quarter of an inch thick (or 7mm) and the length of an A4 piece of paper. It's easiest to use a guillotine or paper cutter if you have one. If not, draw a straight line with a ruler down the side of an A4 piece of paper and try to cut with scissors as straight as you can!

Then 'tie' the paper in a knot. You don't want to be tugging it too much, just start with a loose knot and gently pull it tighter so that it sits at one end of the strip.

When you've got your little knot as tight as you can, squash it flat to create a hexagonal sort of shape.



As well as a long strip coming out of one side of your knot, you'll have a little stubby bit of paper stuck out the other side. Just neatly tear it off using the side of the knot as a guide.

The long strip now needs to be wrapped around the hexagonal shape of the knot, being careful to keep the wrapping tight and folds neat.

Continue wrapping the hexagon until you reach the end of the strip of paper. Tuck the end into the 'pocket' naturally created by the wrapping process. You may need to snip a little bit off the end to make sure it fits in perfectly.

Your origami star in the making should look like this now...

 

Next is the fun bit - creating the pointy bits of the star! You can either do this stage using a hard edge such as a ruler or the side of a pair of scissors, or you can just use your nails. The middle of each side of the hexagon needs to be pushed in, which gives the star its 3D look. When you are doing this, make sure you hold the star at the edges so as not to crush it.

Repeat this process on all sides, then pinch out the corners to make your star nice and pointy.

Et voilà, the finished star! Now you have plenty of time to make lots more before Christmas arrives. Careful though, they're very addictive!

 

I'll be adding more tutorials like this one soon, please follow my blog and like my facebook page if you'd like to see them!

I'm sharing this tutorial at the following link parties: I Gotta Create, The Shabby Creek Cottage, A Creative Princess, Domesblissity and Rhinestone Beagle.



Paper cutting experiments - Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge and Creative Tuesday paper crafts

Hi everyone! On Friday I had a rare evening in alone which has given me the chance to play with paper! For a while now I have been meaning to explore a bit more into the world of Artist Trading Cards (ATC's), which, for those of you who don't know (like I didn't!), are 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch mini, collectable works of art. I asked Ike from 'Ike's World' for a few recommendations on where to start with ATCs and she pointed me in the direction of Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge. This week the theme is 'tree houses' so I thought I'd have a go!

I wanted to create a 3D piece and I had originally thought to build up a layered watercolour painting. However, my plans were scuppered when I couldn't find my paintbrushes! I searched high and low but to no avail, the only place I thought they might be was the car, but Sam had gone out in it so I had to resort to coloured pencils. As it happens it turned out just fine!

View from the front...

...and view from the side.

Here's how it was made:

First I drew the layers out on separate ATC size pieces. Then I coloured them in and cut them out with a craft knife. The leaves turned out so much better than I thought they would while I was cutting them! The deer was a bit of an afterthought as the foreground would have looked a bit bare without something to fill it!

Once all the layers were cut out, I assembled them using sticky pads to separate them. The top needed two layers of sticky pads as it was double the height of the second layer (hope that makes sense!).

I was on a paper cutting roll after this so my contribution to Creative Tuesdays also involves sticky pads and little bits of paper! The theme this week was 'ships'. I looked up some photos on Google and decided to go for a tall ship. With its billowing white sails it really lent itself to being made out of white card. For a first attempt at something like this I don't think it turned out too bad!

Tall ship - white card

For those of you who want to know, here's how it was made:

I drew out all the pieces separately, which was a little tricky as in the photo I had all the sails overlapped so I had to guess at the 'behind bits'. Once I was happy I cut them out with a craft knife.

The sails had to be stuck down, back ones first.

Last to be stuck down were the sails near the bow (I have absolutely no idea what they're actually called!).

So that's that, a lovely evening indulging in paper crafts! There's a giveaway in my next post, be sure to check it out!

Today I'm linking up to Handmade Harbour, Cornerstone Confessions, Savvy Southern Style and Manon Popje's Illustrations.