Folded Star Tutorial

Folded Star Decoration 

         Hi friends sharing a super simple yet glamorous paper decoration tutorial .Had made these folded paper stars as part of my daughter's Frozen theme birthday party decorations [ you can read about it by clicking the link]

DIY Frozen party Decorations

We had a blue- white color theme and so made white stars with blue  foam star tips and  snowflake centers

Folded Star Decoration

Since I used white ivory card stock to make the body of the paper stars added a bit of glamour using glitter foam snowflakes and stars

Paper Star Decoration

Paper Star tutorial 

I made these Paper stars initially by following a tutorial by Alix but though it is a super simple project I did run into a few hiccups hence sharing a detailed tutorial with tips.

Materials Required

• Thick Card Stock- For Indian readers I recommend Ivory Card stock available in Stationary shops otherwise you can use the  thickest card stock you get. Good quality double sided pattern paper would look especially cool.Avoid thin paper as it will make your stars floppy!
• Adhesive : Double sided Tacky tape [Read more here: 12 Tacky Tape projects]makes your job quicker otherwise use regular white glue [ Fevicol MR]
• Stapler- drastically cuts down your time!
• Paper Cutter- If you have a guillotine cutter [read more here : Paper Cutting Tools] making a large number of paper stars is quick and easy!

Folded Star Tutorial 

Cut card stock into 10 x 1 inch , 8 x 1 inch and 6 x 1 inch strips.

Folded Star Tutorial 

 Fold all the paper strips in half

Folded Star Tutorial 

 Line up the ends of the paper strips- it is important to line them up perfectly to get a perfect star at the end!

Folded Star Tutorial 

 Glue or staple the ends together

Folded Star Tutorial 

 Staple the other end of the folded strips

Folded Star Tutorial 

You have made one unit of your folded star. You need to make 7 or more such units. I found that stars made of 7 or 8 units looks the best.

Folded Star Tutorial 

So to make one folded star you need to cut 7  each of 10, 8 and 6 inch wide strips and staple them together.

Folded Star Tutorial 

Once you have made 7 folded units, apply double sided  tape or white glue to the outer side of the unit and stick to another unit as shown

Folded Star Tutorial 

If you are using white glue give enough time for the glue to dry. I found tacky tape the easiest and fastest adhesive option in this step. You can also use a stapler but it can be tricky to staple through several layers of thick card stock!

Folded Star Tutorial 

Keep on sticking more folded units

Folded Star Tutorial 

If you wish to add a ribbon you can add it to the adhesive strip before sticking together your 1st and 7th folded unit!

Folded Star Tutorial 

And here is how the folded star looks --super easy to make but a word of warning its not for little hands as my daughter [ she is 9 yrs] declared it was tricky to align the paper strips properly!

Folded Star Tutorial 

Since these stars are dimensional I added punched out glitter foam stars and die cut snowflakes to both sides of the folded star.

Folded Star Decoration

The blue one you see below was made from thinner chart paper and did not turn out as sturdy or as beautiful as the others when hung!

Folded Star Decoration

I hope this easy star tutorial will come in handy for making easy party decorations or Christmas decorations.

Folded Star Decoration

Edited : This tutorial was featured at Totally Tutorials

Texture Media Experiments

Texture Media

One of the best things about being the  DT of Crafters Corner is one gets to experiment with products one has never worked with before. It is scary as well as exciting at the same time if you know what I mean!
This project featuring experiments with texturing media Whipped Spackle and Glass Beads Gel !

Altered Box

I started off by painting a black box with gesso and sponging with distress inks!

Coloring Texturing Media Whipped Spackle 

Whipped Spackle 

In the Altered Heart Plaque shared earlier I had painted on Whipped Spackle ...that took time so experimented with a quicker way of coloring texture media using alchol inks!

Whipped Spackle

Here is how the yummy Whipped Spackle looks uncolored

Whipped Spackle 

Added a tiny drop of alcohol ink and mixed it with Whipped Spackle on a plastic tray

Whipped Spackle 

Used a Bamboo plastic stencil and spread the colored Whipped Spackle on it using a plastic knife

Whipped Spackle 

Adding Shimmer

Tried mixing in glitter into the Whipped Spackle but that didnt work out as the Whipped Spackle somehow absorbed all the glitter and it didnt show up

Whipped Spackle 

So while the Whipped Spackle was still wet sprinkled fine glitter on it

Whipped Spackle 

Dusted off the excess glitter by tapping. Loved the subtle shimmer it gave!

Smooth versus even more textured Surface

Since Whipped Spackle is very similar to real icing you can get smooth or peaked surfaces by just smoothing or peaking the surface !

Whipped Spackle 

In the top picture I smoothed out the Whipped Spackle using a plastic knife before lifting the stencil while in the  picture below I lifted the knife in areas to peak the surface of the Whipped Spackle texturing media!

Whipped Spackle 

And even the little peaks maintained their shape after drying [ was put to test when the box fell and all the little textures didn't get squashed!]

Texturing with Glass Beads Gel 

Glass Beads Gel 

Glass Beads Gel is another cool texturing medium which has tiny translucent glass beads embedded in it

Glass Beads Gel 

Properties of Beads Gel and How to Use Beads Gel

• Looks white when you take it from the jar
• Dries absolutely Clear
• You can apply it to multiple surface like glass, metal , wood, paper on its own - no need to use any other glue
• You can use a plastic knife, brush or your own fingers to smear it
• You can use it on a stencil 
• You can Paint over it
• On drying it reflects the colors of the surface over which you used it

Whipped Spackle

Added a border of Cheery Lynn  die cut grass on Whipped Spackle textured box and smeared Glass Beads Gel over it  [seen in white]

Glass Beads Gel 

Here is the closeup of the Glass Beads Gel  showing the tiny glass beads embedded in it and looking white before it dried

Glass Beads Gel 

And here is how it looks once dry... [Takes on an average 12 hours to dry fully clear]

Glass Beads Gel 

On the other side of the box the Glass Beads Gel was applied to a background inked with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and hence on drying it reflects the subtle green shade

Glass Beads Gel 

Even though you can apply Glass Beads Gel on a stencil it doesnt work well with tiny or too thinly detailed stencils !

Glass Beads Gel

The rather smudgy looking butterfly was made using Glass Beads Gel on the same stencil I used in the Altered Heart which had given such a beautiful effect with Whipped Spackle !

Crystal flower

This altered box has a multitude of media: Crystal flowers, Metal leaves, Thermocol [ foam putty] berries, real pebbles, handmade resin flower and fairy..

Texture Media Experiments

Here is a closeup of the handmade Resin flower on my box lid

Handmade Resin

The little fairy was also handmade using resin and a mould.

Handmade Resin Fairy

I layered embossed Memory Box die cut clouds using foam tape and added a "Dream" glittery sticker[ gifted by my dear friend Lisa]

Embossing

Supplies : From Crafters Corner : Whipped Spackle, Glass Beads Gel
Foam Putty, Dies : Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf , Cheery Lynn  grass , Memory Box clouds

Altered Heart Tutorial

Altered Heart

            Hi friends do forgive my absence from blogland...I will catch up  and visit you all soon!
Some objects do have sentimental values attached to them dont they...This heart shaped piece of card board was the base of  my mom's 67th birthday cake! I saved it and gave it the works !

Altered Cake Base

A coating of gesso and  went to work with stencils and Whipped Spackle  [more about this texture medium here: Whipped Spackle tutorial ]

Whipped Spackle 

Whipped Spackle is creamy and lightweight like real whipping cream and can be smeared on with your fingers or a plastic knife!

Whipped Spackle 

I used a cherry blossom and butterfly metal stencil set that had been lying neglected since ages!

Whipped Spackle painting

       Once the Whipped Spackle had dried [ I left it for a couple of hours] I painted over it with distress inks [ smeared ink on a piece of plastic and dipped my paint brush on the ink to paint!]

Altered Heart

       Sponged over the background with tumbled glass distress ink but took care to leave the Butterflies somewhat un -inked !

Stencilled Butterfly with Whipped Spackle 

        You can actually put several layers of paint on the Whipped Spackle and it will take it all without flattening/ smearing.

Homemade Resin Embellishment

          In some areas I wanted a brighter color so used pearl acrylic paints. The glittery fairy was made at home using Resin[ Resin is my current obsession!] and she is plucking magical blueberries . I made the magic blue berries using something called Foam Putty which is soft , sticky and mouldable like clay and has tiny styrofoam/thermocol balls in it!

Crackle Paint

         The fun thing about mixed media art is you can really layer on different media and mistakes can be either masked or interpreted as art! Hehe my background looked rather shabbily inked so resorted to crackle paint to salvage the situation !The blue glitter you see is from a bottle of my daughter's nail art kit ...love the contrast it gives to the crackled surface!

Beads Gel 

Experimented with a fun texturing media called Glass beads gel using a leafy stencil and painted over it a vibrant green. I later felt the green was too garish so camouflaged it with handmade Thai Clay roses and Heartfelt creations die cut leaves.

Thai Clay Roses

Here is the link to a simple Leaf tutorial . Couldnt resist adding a silver Cheery Lynn  Butterfly 

Altered Heart 

I am still taking baby steps in Mixed media but I do hope you enjoyed this step by step and how my heart plaque finally turned out!

Supplies : from Crafters Corner : Glass Beads Gel , Whipped Spackle, Clear Rock Candy Distress crackle paint . Dies : Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf leaf, Cheery Lynn  butterfly

Misc : Resin , Silicon Mold, Foam Putty,Thai clay, Distress Inks, Pearl Acrylic paint