Star ornaments

Music tree

We started a tradition at the beginning of our marriage to make a different ornament each year to add to our Christmas tree.  About ten years ago I wanted a more simple tree for our living room so we designed these stars.  For paper ornaments, they are surprisingly sturdy.  We stack them on top of each other in a shoe box and have been using the same ornaments for 10 years with no visible wear.  Each year a few people want to make some of these for their own home so I give a few more away.  Finally, this year the tree was getting so sparse we needed to make more so I have decided this would probably be the easiest way to share the pattern for others interested. 

1.  Design your stars.  This is where a little simple math kicks in.  There are 360° in a circle.  I made 5 pointed stars so if you want 5 points, make circles the size of your inner points, mark every 36° to have the 5 outer points and 5 inner points.  I do not like symmetrical stars so I made the inner 5 points equal distance from the center and the outer points different.  If you want a 6 pointed star, do the same thing every 30°. (I used the template below.)

2.  Gather Christmas music.   I love Sally Deford so my tree is covered with her Christmas music that she allows us to copy for free. (http://www.defordmusic.com/) You could make all the stars the same, but I like guessing the song from the little I see on a star and it's fun for my piano students so I cut four stars per page and use all different pages. I do not print the first page of any music to avoid the extra margins and title.  It takes a little time to make sure no stars have too much of the margins.  You want a lot of music per star.  Print on cardstock.

3.  Cut out the stars.  You can use your star templates and place each one on music, but I made a template for four stars and copied it to the back of my music pages.  I used only the outlines for my templates since I wanted the backs of my stars to be white, but I suppose you could print the lines to make folding easier.

4. Fold the stars.  This is the only hard part in these ornaments.  I line up the sides for each point and make a precise crease to the point.  After I have 2 points made, I align two of the creases together and continue the point to the center which also makes the downward creases for the inside points.

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5. Paint and mod podge.  I sponge painted mine silver and gold.  Ours don't match.  Some we smudge to make look old.  Others we speckled.  All we painted the outer ridges.  We used mod podge to make the stars sturdy to last.  I have used the mod podge on the back before I cut the stars out.  It is easier to paint, but harder to crease the stars.  Either way, I use two layers front and back.  Completely dry between each layer.

6. Attach cording to hang from the tree.   Make sure the stars are completely dry or poking holes will damage the lines.  Poke two holes and attach cording or ribbon.  If using nylon or plastic, melt the edges to stop fraying.  If using ribbon, use glue or fray check edges.