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Friday, December 2, 2011

Star/rosette garland Tutorial


Here's the tutorial for my paper star/rosette garland.
(sorry the photos are a bit blurry..couldn't tell when I took them but could see it when editing..but you'll get the general idea anyway :))
You need:
Old book pages or paper (mine were a bit bigger than A5)
Stapler
Ink pad of choice
buttons
double sided tape
You will need an old book for that vintage look...or any paper at all..perhaps Christmas wrapping paper? But not too flimsy. Old pages look great and vintagey. You can 'age' new book pages by giving them a little paint of cold tea/coffee and leave to dry...add some vanilla for delicious smell..or a scattering of cinnamon before they dry to give a Christmasy smell!
So..here we go...rip out your pages...

Take each page and fold one end in about 1cm, flip over and fold another cm, and continue on concertina-style until the whole page is folded back and forth...


Next staple the middle. This becomes the centre of your star.

Now cut a V out of each end

Take a stamp pad and rub across the folded edges to give some dimension and colour...just a quick rub along the front edges (or both sides if your stars are hanging free and you’ll see both sides)
then fan each side out into a semicircle, and stick edges together to form a circle. I used doublesided tape to stick sides together but you can use a stapler if you have got a small one which would be much quicker or even fast grabbing glue like Fabri Tac. You now have a concertina’d circle rosette/star.


Glue a button onto the centre of each...different sizes is more interesting than all one size. (didn't have a button here for this photo)

Then I just threaded wool thru the back of each star to make a garland...threaded the wool into a darning needle without cutting it off the ball....kept threading till I had enough for where they are going and then cut it off.