324. Little Green Paper Star

Yes, I have made these before. This is an emergency star, made last week and dedicated to 'CampusCouch':

85. Fröbelstern

Fröbelsterne - so called after their creator Friedrich Fröbel - are also known as 'German Stars' and are something like a must-do if you commit to making Christmas stars. I vaguely remember having made one or two many (many!) years ago, so it's high time to pick up some paper strips again. :)

 

Originally, I had intended to make a mobile out of several of them, but after having completed two, I've quite had my fill. This is an example where 'just any ordinary paper' will not do. First of all, cutting your own paper strips will most definitely not work (if you don't have a cutting machine) because they need to be perfectly straight and all of the exact same width. Secondly, the paper is far too soft and some strips may not be stiff enough in the end to slide beneath others yet again. (Gift ribbon would be a great material for this but I don't have any at the moment.)

As of that as well as a lack of energy (Tuesday again... ;)) I'm not posting the how-to here, but there are tons of instructions floating about the web, including videos - should be easy to find in case someone wants to take on this challenge.^^

P.S.: The are two-sided:

83. Little Paper Strip Stars

Okay, so today was the beginning of Advent season - and that means I'll be making Advent stars now. What I have in mind is mostly decoration (After many years I will finally have a properly decorated place during the time before Christmas) but there will probably be some others, too.

The stars I made this evening - while finally taking the time to just sit on the couch and watch quality TV - are an addition to yesterday's Advent wreath decoration:

 

They are extraordinarily simple to make, als you need is a strip of paper (mine were about 30 cm long and 1 cm wide), and possibly scissors but you can always rip the paper if needed.

Take the paper strip and make a knot on one end which you press flat:

Cut (or rip) off the short end, then start wrapping the long end around the pentagon shaped knot. It folds more or less automatically in the right direction. Keep wrapping until you have only a short end left:

 

Slide the end under the top layer of the wrapping:

 Cut off the end:

Now use your fingernails (I've tried: it does work with short ones as well ;)) to push dents into all five sides. Then you'll have the star. :)

P.S.: I call it 'Hoshi' which is simply the Japanese word for 'star', because the friend who taught me how to make it had learned this from some Japanese exchange students if I remember correctly.^^