December 14, 2011

DIY Tutorial – Make Mid-Century Inspired Starburst Christmas Decorations!

By RetroRuth

Finally! I finished my folded star Christmas decorations! And now, I am ready to share them with you.

Whew! These are super-fun to make once you get the hang of folding everything. As I mentioned before, this idea originally came from a 1958 Better Homes & Gardens Magazine. The directions were a little hard to follow, so I just revamped them a little to reduce the steps and make it a little more speedy!

So, get your tools and let’s get started!

To make one star, you will need:

Scrap paper

A ruler

A pen

Scissors

A 3.5 inch diameter circle of cardboard

2 – 12 inch square pieces of double-sided paper

Cut a 3.75 inch x 7.5 inch rectangle from your scrap paper.

Fold the paper in half, then into a triangle.

Fold one side of the triangle over, creasing the top corner in half.

Unfold the paper. Now, this is a little tricky. Make dots on each fold, measuring from the inside point. First make a dot 3 and 3/4 inches out, then a dot 1 and 7/8ths inches out. Continue making dots, alternating back and forth between the long and short measurements. When you are done with the dots, connect them with a pen.

Cut along the dots to create a star.

Cut off the two rays on the end to make a crown shape and create your template!

Divide your double sided papers into 6inch by 4 inch rectangles.

Fold in half.

Then fold in both sides towards the center fold.

Place your template on the folded paper, and line up the folded lines as best as you can. Cut around the template.

Copied perfectly!

Bring together the bottom pieces of your double-sided paper cut-out.

When you are finished, it should look sort of like an arrowhead. Tape or glue the folded over edge.

Nice! Now just make 7 more!

Take your cardboard circle and line up your folded arrows, points together. Glue or hot glue them down once you get them arranged.

And, you are done! Now, I probably could have done a better job of getting the points to go together, but still think it looks pretty good!

Now that you have the basics down, you can do some adjustments. Like…

Cutting the edges with fancy scissors, like this pinked-edge version.

Or hot-gluing something in the center to mask the not-quite-perfect center points! I used a little deer here, but you can use any little thing you have laying around, even little buttons, or an orphaned earring! You could even used patterned paper, or cover your finished star with spray glitter!

So many fun ideas…

So cute!

Success! And a messy desk.