Secret Stars

When I in the 4^th grade and at a birthday sleepover for a friend, one of the girls gave the birthday girl a pretty glass filled with what seemed like hundreds of mini wishing stars. I was enthralled with these little marvels; they looked so bright and friendly, they could have been candy. In fact, that’s what we all thought they were when she opened it. It turns out that these little beauties were made of paper. I had to know how to make them.

As it turns out, the girl who made them was a bit of a snob about it and it took me an hour to badger her into teach me how to make them. I had not yet discovered the internet back then and youtube was not around, so I had no choice but to have her teach me. She made me pinky swear and swear on the life of my first born child not to tell anyone how this was done (not literally, but you get the idea). This was apparently serious business.

When I went home the next day and showed my family a completed star, they flipped out. My brothers wanted to know the secret to these awesome little treasures. However, I was a girl of my word and kept the secret to myself. They begged me for YEARS to teach them how to make these cool little stars. I was a steel trap; they got nothing out of me.

Why am I revealing this now, you may ask? Because, apparently, youtube is full of videos and tutorials on how to make these stars and I don’t feel like I am breaking my promise because the "secret" is out all over the internet. Also, I never really like that girl and she was super rude to me throughout school, so I don’t think this secret deserves to be kept.

Here is the perfect tutorial for learning how to make these little gems, complete with video and picture directions.

My collection of stars

I have found, after making hundreds of these over time I have discovered that having nails is a huge benefit when making the creases to form the points, using a strip of paper that is too long causes it to be shapeless while too short a strip causes them to collapse, and that your hands will hurt badly after making a lot of these. Keeping these in mind, I made a little jar full of them to add a splash of color to my room.

 I feel that it adds a dash of color and whimsy to my space.

I would love to do more with this craft for gifts and that sort of thing. There are some great ideas out there.

I have not done any of these yet but will certainly be making some of them as gifts one day.