d.i.y. hanging stars...

When I first started making these I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them...maybe decorations for our Christmas tree or a window decoration. Then we put our decorations up and there was a perfect gap for these pretty little stars to fill in our lounge...so our hanging stars were born.

All these take are a little patience, time and background Christmas music. I initially started making these free hand but decided that, unless I was going for an abstract piece of art, it might be better to use a template. I found my template by just googling 'star template'.

I used 0.8mm wire, it was malleable but held it's shape well. For hanging the stars I used a large twig from a tree in our garden and thin thread.

1) Take the template and begin to shape the wire around the printed star. Use the flat-nosed pliers to bend the wire to help give defined points on the star, you can then adjust it to the right angle by hand. Any accidental bends or kinks in the wire can be easily straightened out with the pliers.

2) Continue around the whole of the star and overlap the ends by approximately 5cm. Either by hand or with the pliers, wrap the wire around the side of the star to secure. Trim any excess wire and use the flat-nosed pliers to flatten the end of the wire tightly to the star.

note: you may find this technique slightly distorts the star shape. If you experience this then you can also use the technique I used in the geometric earring tutorial (see step 3). I used both techniques while making the stars and both worked well.

Repeat until you have as many stars as you wish! I made 3 different sizes to add variety.

Now the fun begins...it's time to decorate! I would love to hear how you decide to decorate your stars. I'll share with you what I decided to do.

To make this star, simply wrap a strand of raffia around the wire template, securing with a knot.

For the woven stars, simply choose an embroidery thread, secure with a knot, and wrap repeatedly around the star, making sure the thread is kept taught. Once you've finished simply secure with another knot, and trim the excess thread.

Before I decided on using raffia and embroidery thread, I had also added glitter to some of the stars. I decided not use these in the end because they clashed with the gold of the raffia and thread. But to make glitter stars simply pour some glitter onto a plate, generously brush glue onto the star and then dip into the glitter. Leave to dry and then dip again into the glue to seal in the glitter - unless you want to wear glitter every time you touch them :)

To decorate the branch I wrapped a gold sewing thread repeatedly along the branch.

I used the same thread to hang the stars as I didn't want the threads to be obvious.

I love our new addition to our Christmas decorations!

Happy Monday :)