Wooden Star Decorations Tutorial

Happy Weekend Crafters!

I am continuing to work on the decorations for my daughter's high school Sadie Hawkins Dance to be held next month.  On today's agenda...recreating wooden stars on the cheap from a cute wooden star I found in a small town store during our Thanksgiving holiday.

Back in November I stopped at an adorable store in Glen Rose, TX (southwest of Dallas) called Miss Dixie's Cottage.  It's right on the town square and a little gem!

It's at Dixie's that I found my star.  I had to have it.  Do you ever just go into a store and see something that speaks to you?  Maybe that's just me.  But this star said, "Take me home Angela even though you could probably make me."  So I did.  My daughters are playing Vanna White with the star.

So fast forward to today.  That Thanksgiving star became my template to make 12 more of my very own stars for the upcoming high school dance.  I might add that the 12 stars I made today were almost as cheap as the one star I bought.  Cool.

Here's the supply list:

• 6 foot strips of thin wood.  I found bundles of very rustic, very thin wood on the fencing aisle at Lowe's  A bundle of 10 was $8.72. The hardware store and I are beginning to have a relationship. 

• a pencil
• a tape measure
• a saw of some kind depending on your comfort level....I used a table saw
• staple gun...this is the one I use
• 5/8" staples

For the tutorial, watch my YouTube Video:

See, easy!  And I simply love the fact that my 11 year-old helped me make these stars and then had the brilliant idea that they would be cool made out of yardsticks!  I'm going to have to file that idea away for a later date. 

These stars would be a fabulous photo backdrop or decorations at a rustic wedding, picnic, barbeque, or many other kinds of parties and celebrations.  I hope you will give this craft project a shot!  I will be attaching the coffee filter letters I taught you how to make in my last blog post to each of the stars to spell out "SIMPLY SADIES".  They will be hung around the dance floor next month.  Stay tuned for those pictures. 

Angela Davis of Prettify Your Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com 

Coffee Filter Letters

Happy New Year Crafters!

So, I'm kinda sad December is over.  It felt like I was just settling into my favorite time of year, and then it was gone!  True confession time: all my Christmas decorations are still up except the real tree in the living room that was D-E-A-D.  I just haven't wanted to deal with taking down the pretty stuff, but I know the time is here. Good thing I have a big project to get my mind off the fact that another Christmas has come and gone...a Sadie Hawkins dance at my daughter's high school next month.  If you are unfamiliar with what a Sadie Hawkins dance is, it is just a dance where the girls ask the boys.  The theme for our dance is "Simply Southern Sadies"  I live in Houston, and the Houston rodeo in February is A BIG DEAL.  So our "Simply Southern Sadies" theme is western chic.  I am on the decorating committee.  So the first thing I decided to tackle were some of the decorations for the dance floor railings.  I settled on a coffee filter craft.  Yep, you read that right...coffee filter craft.  They are all over Pinterest, but I never have tackled this craft...until now...and I LOVE the results!

Here are the supplies you need along with either a cutting machine or a pair of scissors.

You can find some similar extra long 12x24 inch cardstock HERE.  The coffee filters are the 8-12 cup size ones.  I got my foam core sheets at Dollar Tree.

1. The first step is to cut out your letter template.  Again, I used my Silhouette Cameo.  The font I used is Franklin Gothic Demi.  Want the FREE Silhouette Studio file I created with all the letters?  Get it HERE.  I also recreated the Cricut Design Space file.  Get it HERE.  If you don't have either, just print out a letter or draw one and cut it out with scissors.

2.  Next, trace around the letter on your foam core board.

3. Then, using a craft knife, cut out your letter following the trace line.

4.  Now, grab your coffee filters and start making your poofs by folding them slightly in half and then squishing them up to form a flower with a tail you bend.  The tail will be what you hot glue to the board.

5.  Hot glue a row of coffee filter puffs down the center of the letter, making sure they touch each other to give you that full, ruffled look we are going for.

6.  Now make your puffs for the side rows using the same method as stated in Step 4 except squish up the tail to create what looks like jus the head of a flower.  You will then hot glue all of these in on the sides of the center row of puffs.

7.  And you're done! These letters took around 75 coffee filters each to complete.  Aren't they fun!!

8.  To attach these to items, hot glue floral wire or pipe cleaners to the back and wire them onto whatever surface you are using (in my case a wooden star as seen below).  Or, you can also hot glue these directly onto surfaces since they are so lightweight.

For a more detailed explanation, watch my YouTube video:

Angela Davis of Prettify Your Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com