A whimsical star design hung in your classroom is sure to turn heads! Use our R15350 Cut & Fold Squares for brilliant color.
Age: 6+
Duration: 20-30 minutes
You’ll Need:
• Tape
• Scissors
• Hole punch
The great thing about this craft is that it looks complicated, but is actually super-easy to make! All you require is square-cut paper, a simple folding technique and a few snips with scissors. I’ll walk you through the process step-by-step, but I’ve also made a few detailed animations to help you through each step.
Choose your selection of colors. A rainbow-colored star will stand out just as nicely as a red and green arrangement!
The Christmas Star is divided into several parts. Each part can be made simply with one Cut & Fold Square and a few cuts with scissors. First fold your square into a triangle.
Thanks to Mrs. Sami for noting that we needed to provide a template to show you how to make the cuts! The top image shows you how to start off your cuts along the green lines. The bottom image shows how to complete the other side of the cuts along the blue lines.
From the fold line, close to the edge of the triangle, cut 1 long line towards the point of the triangle. Do not cut all the way across the triangle, but stop about 1/2″ below the edge. Make another cut just beside the first. Stop the cut about 1/2″ below the first cut. Make a third cut beside the second cut. Stop the cut about 1/2″ below the second cut. Mirror the same cuts on the other side of the triangle.
Unfold the triangle back into a square. Turn the square so that it makes a diamond shape. You’ll notice that the cuts make little triangle strips on either side of the diamond shape. Start with the uncolored side facing up. Join the corners of the center together. Use tape to secure.
Next, flip the shape over and join the next two corners together with tape. Flip the shape over again to the uncolored side and join the next two corners. Continue flipping the shape over and joining the next set of corners until you get something like a spiral, which you can see in the last image in the animation.
In order to make a Christmas Twist Star, you will need 6 of the colorful spirals. Alternate the colors of the spirals (such as red, green, red, green, etc) or make one of each color available in the Cut & Fold Squares pack.
To join the spirals, glue the sides together. You should have all 6 spirals glued side by side in a row. Wait for the glue to dry before bending the whole line of spirals into a circle. Glue the sides of the last two spirals together. The spirals will all angle out from the center to look like a large star!
Punch a hole through the top of one of the spiral points.
Tie a length of string from the hole to hang the star!
Show us your beautiful Christmas Twist Stars! Send us photos of your students’ work. Contact us through the contact form. Wishing you a wonderful winter vacation!
Special Feature this week:
We’ll be updating every day of this week and next week with fantastic holiday crafts you can use in your classroom!
Please note:
LittleFingersBigArt won’t be posting anything between December 18th, 2013 and January 6th, 2014! Have a wonderful winter vacation!
Nice, I’ve made these with my special needs class
Would love to see what you made!
They are exactly the same as what you have here, except we used 8×11 paper and cropped it down to squares. We are actually selling them to staff and students and have raised over 200$ so far for the department. Definitely great to decorate the classroom with as well!
I’m ecstatic to hear that you’ve used them not only to decorate your classroom, but support your school’s department as well! What a great idea 🙂 Do you have pictures to share? I would love to feature this in an upcoming post! All the best!
What age group did you do these with? I love to make them and tried with my 4th graders, but really had trouble explaining how to cut them…..suggestions?
Hi Mrs. Sami! Thank you so much for your comment. What we’ve done is provided a template in the post (just underneath the cutting animation) to help your students understand the cutting technique. Can you let us know if this works for you? Thanks again!
Reblogged this on Sassylady's craft blog..
LOVE this! Thanks for the step-by-step 🙂
Hope the tutorial can help you in some way, Mollie! Thanks again, and have a wonderful Christmas!
Reblogged this on Jen's Rambling Thoughts and commented:
This is so gorgeous and easy…..I can see myself making so many of them.
So great to know you’ve enjoyed this post!
I haven’t made one yet but i’m going to:) Thank you for sharing it with us.