See what you can do with a cereal box......
You can make a pretty vintage looking Christmas star! I've seen several paper stars around Blogland and decided I needed to try it myself and thought I would share what I did.
Some of the supplies you'll need..........
Cereal Box (or other food box or sturdy cardboard)
Star Template--found
HERE.
Old sheet music or paper of your choice
Glitter
Mod Podge--I'll share how to make your own--it's so much cheaper!
Pen or Pencil
Sponge brush or make up sponge
Brayer
Bone folder--optional
Embossing Stylus
Scissors
If you have an old rotary mat they make great work surfaces!
Print out the
Star Template on plain white paper. You can size it to whatever size you like. I chose an 8 x 10 print size and my star measures approx. 6 3/4 x 8 3/4.
Cut out.
Cut out the front of the cereal box.
Lay the star template on the cereal box--I layed it on the printed side, so my pen marks wouldn't show on the back, but really it doesn't matter which side you choose.
Trace around the outside edge of the star.
Don't worry about the inner lines of the star just yet.
Cut out the traced star shape.
Next, tear up your sheet music into random pieces. I do this so that I have a better coverage of the music staffs and not so much blank space in between.
I had some old sheets from another project that had been tea stained.
To tea stain your sheet music, if needed, mix up about a cup and a half of very strong instant tea. Pour into a large baking dish, dip the sheet music into the tea mixture and then lay flat to dry or dry it with a blow dryer. Iron if needed to make it flat again.
Next, I laid my pieces around my star shape to get an idea of where I wanted them placed.
Then using a make up sponge or sponge brush--my sponge brush was a bit too used to work well enough for me--brush the star with the Mod Podge.
I used homemade Mod Podge and it works great! All it is, is 1 part all purpose white glue and 1 part water. In an old jar empty out a full bottle of white glue. Fill the glue bottle with water. Shake it up really well to get all the glue off the inside of the bottle and then pour into the jar with the glue. Shake to mix well. This is so cheap and works beautifully. I learned how to do this from
HERE.
Now place all the paper pieces in their spots around the star and press them down.
Roll over them with your brayer.
I use a fancy used dollar store lint roller. Works like a charm!
Turn your star over and trim off the excess paper.
All nice and trimmed and ready to have some fold lines added................
Turn the star over to the backside and line the star template up to it...........
Using your stylus (or a ball point pen) trace along each of the lines inside the star.
Be sure to press hard enough to make a bit of an indentation.
Now we will fold along each of those lines. You can use a bone folder if you'd like. I started out using mine and then decided I preferred not to use it.
After you fold along each of the long lines, go back and fold in the opposite direction along the short lines. These will be folded or pushed down. So the long lines pop up and the short lines go down.
This is what will give your star it's dimension. You may have to fiddle with it a bit to get it to "pop".
You can see it's dimension a little better here. I also had a bit of paper that needed to be glued down more, so do a check for that and glue any loose areas down.
Next I glittered--and I forgot to take anymore pictures! But what I did was this........
I took a scrap piece of printer paper, folded it in half. Unfolded it and laid it out to do my glittering on--you'll see why in a minute.
Then I took my make up sponge, dipped it in the glue and ran it along each outer edge and inner edge and applied the glitter. I did each arm of the star one at a time, so my glue wouldn't dry before I could glitter it.
After I got all of the glitter shook off, I folded the printer paper back up and now all the glitter falls into the fold and you have a make-do funnel to pour the glitter back into it's container with a little less mess.
Using a soft paint brush, brush off excess glitter as needed.
Voila! You now have a beautiful Christmas star from an old cereal box!
Oh and those white spots in the paper really aren't that light. They just show up in the photograph really well. If you do end up with any such spots just hit them with some distress ink.
I found the fabulous star template from another star tutorial made from a tin foil pan at
Choose to Thrive Blog. I would love to try one of those too.
Hang your star on your tree, make a bunch for a garland or wreath, use for gift tags or tuck them into your decor here and there.
Enjoy!
Linked To...........
TICKLED PINK FRIDAYS at 504 MainFEATHERED NEST FRIDAY at French Country CottageFLAUNT IT FRIDAY at Chic on a Shoestring DecoratingSHOW & TELL FRIDAY at My Romantic Home
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