The Loveliness of Advent
A Bit of Housekeeping

Star Light, Star Bright

We had great fun today making this quick but pretty craft ~ a whole host of colorful stars to adorn our wintertime windows!

Materials:

  • construction paper
  • brightly colored tissue paper
  • something round to trace
  • star-shaped punch *or* star-shaped template
  • scissors
  • regular tape, double sided tape

Starlight1

This project came to me this morning as I was rooting around in some old craft bins downstairs. Amongst some old scrapbooking supplies I found a star-shaped punch and immediately thought of Earlybird's fascination with astronomy. I also thought about the darkness of winter and how the night sky brings us such beauty and sparkle throughout the bitter cold months. Starry windows would be a lovely Christmas decoration - one that would carry us throughout the whole winter season!

And armed with a few basic supplies, we set out to make our colorful window stars ...

First, we traced and cut out many circles of construction paper (25 in all). For this, I just traced around the bottom of a milk glass. Next, we used the star-shaped punch to create an open star shape in the center of the circle. I did this part myself as the punch is very sharp. (If you do not have a punch, you might trace a star shape onto some thick cardstock, tagboard or cardboard and cut it out to use as a template. When cutting the shape out of the paper in this way, a craft knife works especially well.)

Starlight2

In advance, I had cut up some small squares of tissue paper. From that pile we would choose a color and tape it onto the back of the circle (so that the tissue showed through the star opening). Finally we stuck two small pieces of double sided tape on the back and then pressed the stars into our windows - filling many panes with starlight to shine the whole winter long:

Starlight4

Starlight3

And since no crafting day is complete without a plate of goodies, I made up some "Autumn Star" cookies as a finale. (Shhh - these are Pilsbury slice-and-bake! I need - and would love - a good gingerbread recipe! Let me know if you have one!) We cut the cookie dough with a large star-shaped cutter and then used up the scraps by making tiny autumn leaf shapes. We placed the leaves on the star cookies before baking and I think the effect was awfully pretty:

Starlight6

These last few days of autumn, it's nice to remember the beauty of nature all around us, because whatever the season, there is something to ponder. Stars, leaves, light, dark, warmth, cold - all of earth's elements are blessings to behold and enjoy.

Comments