How to make a 3-D Cardboard Star

Have you seen all those adorable metal stars that people put on the outside of their houses and inside for fun festive decor? Of course you have.

I wanted some to decorate my mantel, but on the cheap. I found some ideas online and modified a little to make it easier.

Word to the wise: this was supposed to be really easy but the gluing can be tricky and takes some patience. For a free star, I thought it was worth it though 🙂

Materials

Cardboard (cereal box works great!)
Scissors
Spray Paint
Glue Gun

3-D Cardboard Star Tutorial

1. Trace a star onto cardboard. Thinner cardboard is easier to bend and cut (like a cereal box). Cut it out.  TIP: The larger the middle area of your star, the more you will get the 3-d effect. My first stars had long points and don’t really look 3-d as much as my later attempts, which I modified to have a large center area.

2. Line your ruler up from point of the star tip to the edge directly across. Score this line with the edge of your scissors not all the way through the cardboard, but a thick indent.

(don’t mind all the lines and craziness drawn on my cardboard. My 4-year-old daughter was helping me trace and we had to make a few attempts to get it right!)

4. Repeat for each tip until your star looks like this:

5. Bend each tip so that the cardboard edges point down and the scored part is up. Do this with each tip. Basically you will bend the tips back and the inside points of the star you will bend forward.

6. Your 3-D star should be taking shape! Now you want to squish your star up so that it looks how you want it and then trace it onto cardboard (for the back) and cut it out. If you choose and if this is going to be viewed from all angles, I would recommend gluing another 3-D star to the back, so trace another star the same size as the one you have finished and repeat steps 1-5 instead of doing a flat cardboard back. Gluing two 3-D stars together was tricky, which is why I opted for a flat back…simpler. I like simple.

7. This is the patience part. Squish your star up how you want it and start gluing. I found that it worked best to do one tip at a time and hold the star in place until the glue was set and then work on the next tip. This helped the star stay more 3-D and not go flat.

My edges were really hot-gluey and messy. I didn’t really mind because I thought it gave it a cool feeling once spray painted. OBVIOUSLY you can be more careful than me and keep the glue out of sight.

8. Once your star is dry and how you like it take it outside, spray paint it, fancy-it up however you like and then put it above your fireplace with pride.

Or use it as a tree topper!

{Inspiration for this tutorial found here}