Star Tutorials You Must Try for Fourth Of July!

Are you ready for the Fourth of July?  It's always been one of my favorite holidays. In the sweet little Colorado town where we raised our kiddos, there was a kid's parade and an orchestra performance in a lovely old town park.  In the evening, families would grab their blankets and walk up the hill to the golf course for a great fireworks display. Here in Seattle, the best viewing is from a boat on Lake Union. Folks take their boats out early and anchor. They swim and cook on the grill during the day, then snuggle in for the fireworks at dusk.

If you've read my blog for long, you know I love stars!

What Crafters Need to Know About U.S. Copyright Law

I allowed myself to be bullied.  Fortunately, on my long drive out to the beach house, I was able to "get into that place" and think things through.  (This post is participating in the Blogging A to Z Challenge.  B is for Bully.)

It was early December of 2012 and things were good and I was happily going along, minding my business and doing my thing, when I got a strange email. A woman claimed to own the copyright to the designs for some popular star weaving craft tutorials I had written for my blog.

Antique Woven Star Tutorial

Thank you all so much for sharing your Scandinavian stars with me over the last weeks!  I am collecting of portfolio of images and stories of these lovely woven stars.  I think the best part of this process has been the new friendships that have been forged.  I love you gals!  As a thank you, I have created a new tutorial inspired by one of your stars.

Readers have shared family heirlooms, antique store finds, Girl Scout craft memories, and stories of weaving stars from paper or straw or wood in the "old country" as children.  Please keep your stories and pictures coming!

Antique Woven Swedish Advent Star

Today I want to share a star from the private collection of Kristine Leander, executive director of our Swedish Cultural Center.  Kristine lived in Norway in the eighties and early nineties.  On weekends, she would travel to Sweden, haunting the antique shops there.  On one of her trips, she found this lovely antique birch star.  You can tell, simply by looking at this picture, that her woven star has seen many winters!  I adore the woven details on the star tips -- so very pretty. The fact that it has become a bit warped over the years just adds to its charm.  Kristine's star was woven from birch, and held a little light inside.  It would have been hung in a window at Christmastime, to welcome family and friends to the warmth and comfort of home.  This star held an electric bulb, but earlier Advent stars often held a small oil lamp!

I created a tutorial for making this paper star, inspired by Kristine's antique star.  As you all know, I love to work these stars from folded strips of vintage book pages; but you can make them from just about any material you'd like to use.  Most of my readers prefer to use heavy scrapbooking paper, cut into strips. Use whatever you like -- and pretty please, share your star with me!  I love to see your projects!

You will need twenty strips of your chosen material to make your star.  To see how I fold my paper strips, see this post.   In this case, Kristine's center strips are very wide, so I made sixteen strips that are approximately one-quarter inch wide by six inches long; and I made four strips that were three-quarter inches long by six inches.

Kristine's star had center veneer strips with tapered ends -- probably because the center strips were so wide, it would have been impossible to form the star tips without narrowing the strips on the end.  I tapered mine by folding the corners in and securing with glue, but I would recommend simply trimming the strips with scissors and securing the edges with glue (if you are working with multiple folded layers).

Next,  find the center of each fat strip, and glue two pairs together, as shown.

Now, take your skinny strips, and weave together with the fat strips.  You will be creating two sides, that will be joined later. Secure each intersection with a dot of glue. (note:  I am not sure it is necessary to glue the intersections, but I don't seem to have enough hands to make these without doing so. Plus, by gluing the intersections, I can control the spacing of the strips)

The next step is to glue your star tips together.  Begin by taking the adjacent strips and twisting them toward each other and gluing the tips together at right angles, as shown.

Kristine's star had that lovely woven detail on the tips.  To get this look, simply take the next adjacent strips and twist them in and weave across before securing.

If the written instructions seem confusing here, simply recreate the pattern shown in the detail picture above.

Next, take one of the sides and join it to the other side.  You will need to turn one side by forty-five degrees, so that each star tip joins with a fat center strip.

Glue to secure.

Embellish as desired, or leave your star plain -- whatever you do, I promise your result will be beautiful!

I like to add glitter and a hanger made from a strip of paper, but ribbon or twine would work just as well (and it will fit into those little square gift boxes much better without the stiff paper hanger)!   Just for fun, I wove some one-eighth inch wide strips through the center.  These strips are about four inches long and are secured with dots of glue in a couple of places.

These woven stars are an old traditional craft, and lots of variations exist, but the concept is the same for all of them.  If you choose not to make your center strips wider, you will end up with a star that looks something like the star shown below. See that tutorial here.

Notice the tips on this star are not woven like they are on Kristine's star?  This technique is easier to do than the woven star tips, but I must admit I'm kind of in love with the idea of weaving the tips from now on :)

Happy star weaving!  Maybe, if we all get started in January, we will have lots of lovely handcrafted items for Christmas gift giving this year :)

To see more star tutorials inspired by an antique woven star, go here, and here.

New Woven Star Tutorial for 2012

Folks, this is not the woven star tutorial I was planning on posting this week, but I just could not resist the urge to create a star woven from vintage paper based on the lovely antique Swedish star my good friend Tina has had in her family for nearly one hundred years!  According to my friend, variations of these stars are very commonly seen hanging in windows at Christmastime.  Here is my star inspired by this family's treasured heirloom.

Here is the beautiful inspiration star -- isn't it fabulous? This particular star belonged to Tina's beloved Farmor, and is a treasure to her family.  Be sure to check out my friend's blog, Life is Good (Livet är härligt?)-- she often shares sweet little stories and vignettes of her childhood in Sweden.

If you have photos of an heirloom woven star that you would like to share, feel free to leave a link in the comments section or to send me an email.  I would love to hear your stories!

Here is how to make my version of Tina's heirloom woven star:

I like to work with folded strips of vintage book paper. (you can find instructions for how I create my folded paper strips here)  I love the softness of the folded edges, the lovely yellowing of the paper, and the vintage typography and graphics.  Making the strips this way is definitely time consuming (as in turn on a movie, and start folding -- when the movie is over you will probably have enough strips to make a half-dozen stars).  You can save LOTS of time by using a different material, such as heavy scrapbook paper (cut into strips with your handy dandy paper cutter).   Seriously, you can use metal, plastic, reed -- whatever inspires YOU!

To create this eight-pointed woven star, gather strips of whatever you will be using -- in this case, I used folded vintage book pages.  You will need twenty strips to create your star.  Since the inspiration star has slightly wider strips forming the center cross, I folded four strips approximately one-half inch wide,  and sixteen strips one-quarter inch wide.  Each strip is approximately six inches long.  I used the size of the book page to determine the length and width of my strips, to reduce waste and to save time.

So, to repeat, you need twenty strips, in my case, four were one-half inch wide and sixteen were one-quarter inch wide.  Of course, you don't have to make your center strips that wide -- that's just what I did, based on the inspiration.  If you leave all the strips the same width, you will end up with a star that looks like this star:

You can see that it is virtually identical in concept to the star we are doing today!

Begin by finding the center of your two pairs of fat center strips, and gluing them together at right angles.  Use a clear drying glue.  Tacky glues are great for this project.

Next, weave the remaining strips as shown, securing intersections with a tiny dab of glue.

Glue the adjacent corner pieces together to create star points. This is just a bit tricky, as each piece needs to be twisted over toward the other piece before securing.

Now glue the second set of perpendicular corner pieces together.

Make two identical sides.

Now, flip one side on top of the other side, as shown. Basically, one side needs to be offset from the other by forty-five degrees.

Now secure the center strips to the star points.  You can tuck them inside the star points, as I have done, or you can glue them to the outside of the star points, as in the antique inspiration star.  Trim the ends.

Embellish and add a hanger made from a looped strip of folded paper, if you like -- or simply tie on a length of ribbon or twine to hang it by.

Mine is embellished with glitter and vintage tinsel, but it would have been very sweet left plain.  Make your own star in whatever way inspires you.

If you would like to know more about Swedish culture, and possibly even learn to say a few words in Swedish, be sure to check out this series that Tina wrote for her last A to Z Challenge!

Give Tina a visit, then come back, make some hot cocoa, and weave your own traditional star!

Edit: To see yet another variation of Tina's antique star, see this post:

 Enjoy!

This post is being linked to the following lovely places:
Funky Junk Interiors
Feathered Nest Friday
504 Main
My Romantic Home
Shabby Creek Cottage
 Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hookin' Up with HoH 
Yesterday on Tuesday

Make a Woven Star from Vintage Book Pages, Tutorial Part One

We've had a lot of interest in a tutorial for the woven star.  

Thank you all for your sweet comments about these!

This star is made from vintage book pages.  Traditionally, this type of ornament would be made from reed, or birch bark, or wood veneer, though some crafters like to use cardboard.  I think folded paper works really well -- it's more flexible than cardboard, but has enough body to hold it's shape well.