Christmas Star

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

I have seen a lot of folded Christmas Star cards and decorations. I wondered if they were hard to make, but guess what? They are very simple. Let me show you how to make them.

And if you want to know how to make a Magic card, scroll down to see the next project using Stampin' Up! star stamps too.

How to Make a Christmas Star

Making a three dimensional paper star from cardstock may be easier for you than you think! I'll tell you how I made mine and hope you give it a try too.

If you do not have a stamp, draw your stellar shape on cardstock and cut it out. You will need to make your image an evenly shaped one with five points for this to work.

Well, the truth is, this is the only shape I have tried it with so I am not sure about how it would work with fewer or more points to your star.

It helps if you have the Stampin' Up! Christmas Star stamp (134813) which unfortunately is no longer available to order but you may find one on eBay or Gumtree. This is a good sized stamp and makes the score lines and fold lines very easy to find. So if you have that stamp, stamp out a few images on cardstock in your ink colour of choice.

Tip: Emboss, ink or shimmer the images while they are still smooth and flat.

Tip: Glitter is better to add after you have coloured and folded the shape.

Cut the image out leaving a small border around the outside line. This is also called white space, as it allows your image to pop a little when it is placed on another background mat.

Now take your Simply Scored Scoring Tool (122334) and score along all the solid lines, joining each tip with the indent opposite it. You should be scoring along five lines.

Fold along the scored lines, making sure the lines running along the tips are mountain folds (fold comes out towards you), and the folds along the indents are valley folds (fold goes away from you). You can make this work if you fold the shape into an accordion around the centre point.

Now unfold, coax  into an even shape and you have your 3-d embellishment.

This is when you would add any glitter and gems you would like.

Add a single 3-D star shape to a card with some Stampin' Dimensionals (104430) in the middle so the shape doesn't get flattened. I stacked two or three dimensionals on top of one another to make them high enough to bring my star out to the height I wanted it to be.

Make your Paper Stars truly 3-D

I made two of these star images described above and hot glued them together at the inverted points to make a 3-d ornament for my tree, and I made some star  ornaments for my little Christmas gift bags too. Adding stars to wrapped gifts would also work.

Just make two 3-D aper stars as described above, then flip them back to back. Adhere them together with a hot glue gun, being careful to keep your bead of glue on the outside edges inside the two shapes. 

Tip: If you want your 3-D star to be a hanging shape, make sure you hot glue some ribbon inside one of the shapes before you finish gluing the two shapes together.

You can also slip a sentiment tag in between the shells. I used the silver 1/8th" ribbon and the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set (now retired) for my sentiment. 

There are lots of ways to use a double sided decoration. See what else you can think of to add some festive touches to your own gifts and home decor this year.

I heat embossed the star shape below in gold to add it to my Christmas tree, for example.

More Christmas Star Ideas

You can make a Christmas star decoration with punches and stamps, too, if you prefer.

I made a couple of different versions of the Christmas Star as baubles for decorating my Christmas tree, or for hanging on cupboard doorknobs and so on.

These decorations were made using the Christmas Gleaming stamps and punches (retired). The one on the left was actually made by my fellow demonstrator friend, Brenda Rennie.

To make the ornaments, we punched out five petal shapes and hot glued them onto a circle of cardstock to form our star shape. For each petal, we punched another two petals, scored them lengthwise and glued two of the flaps to each other, then glued the winged image to each petal forming a ring.

We made the second layer a similar way, with five flat shapes forming a star and another shape scored down the middle on top, attached at their score line. 

Then just make a centre using a smallish circle punch and any die cut or stamped  images you want to use as embellishments. 

Add a loop of ribbon to the back of the 3d star and cover it with another circle of cardstock to write on (scroll down to see an example of how the back turned out)

The next bauble was made up by me, after searching for inspiration online. I made mine slightly differently to others I saw though as I did not have the exact shapes and papers I saw being used.

Once you know the basic method for making paper stars and baubles, you can adapt and make your own, your own way, with the supplies you already have.

To make these baubles, punch and score baubles in the middle. You can use three or four punched shapes to make the elements. Once folded in half, glue clusters of three or four bauble shapes together.

Arrange the largest clusters in a star shape around a punched circle and glue into place with a hot glue gun.

Then make another layer of clusters in between the first layer,shaping another star in the middle.

Add something pretty to the centre of the star to finish it off.

You can decorate the back too similar to how I have decorated this one:

Pretty, huh?

How to Make a Magic Card

I made a Magic Card with some other Christmas Star and Snowflake stamps the other day. It turned out pretty nice. This shot shows it closed.

It's OK, kinda pretty, but maybe it needs something more? Ah, but this card contains a surprise!

The surprise is revealed when you pull the loop of ribbon at the top of the card. Voila!

Wow! I thought that when I saw how this worked! That's why it is called a Magic card.

Want to know how to make one of these? If so, here is a video put together by Stampin' Up! to reveal the secrets of the Magic Card for you:

Enjoy!

Now you may like to explore another Christmas Craft:

• Christmas Wreath Cards
• Paper wreaths for your doors
• Christmas Card Ideas
• More Christmas Card Ideas
• Christmas Banners