Twine Wrapped Christmas Star

The star is one of my favorite symbols at Christmas. For me it symbolizes the journey to Christ. The Star of Bethlehem led the Magi or Wise-men to the baby Jesus "for we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him."

I recently saw in the Lowe's Creative Magazine a twine star that I wanted to replicate but after reading the reviews I wasn't sure. I then stumbled across this blog and she had a very cute idea for an ornament. I decided to combine the two ideas to make my own.

Lay the wood shims on a flat surface in a star pattern. Make sure to arrange the shims so the thin end on one shim rests on the thick end of the other. 

 

After you lay the shims in the right configuration, mark their placement with a pencil so when you start to glue they will remain in the right placement. 

At each place where the shims overlap, apply wood glue and press the shims together. Use weights to press the wood pieces together for 45 minutes.

Once dry you can now start to wrap it with twine or leave it natural. I think it would look great left natural or painted. I chose to cut off some of the squareness of the edges, so the star ends could resemble more of a point. I made a few cuts...the thin parts I cut with my x-acto knife the thicker ends I used a hand saw.

 

Now this is where things got a little hairy...the twine was giving me a lot of trouble around where the each joint met. This was due to the thick ends. For the life of me I could not figure it out, so a lot of time, glue and twine was wasted. I almost threw in the towel...and my sister would be proud that I did not destroy it altogether. A little inside joke! 

But right as I was about to quit I decided to give it another try. I didn't quite document this properly as I was at my wits end and flying by the seat of my britches. 'Britches' I love that word!

Start wrapping the star from one end of the tip to just pass the crease. Glue on the underside of the star ever so often. Wrap a few strands, then glue, and repeat. Once pass the first crease, start wrapping at the next tip back toward the first crease. Then overlap the twine at the crease. Confused? I was too!

Let me show you a little diagram:

Repeat steps one and two until you have covered the entire star. Now for the tips...wrap your twine around the tip, gluing as you go until you get as far down as you will like it to go. Repeat. 

Now the star is almost complete. Take a short piece of twine, tie a knot on both ends and hot glue it on the back of the star so you can hang it.

Here is a close up of the tip, crease and the hanger:

 Done!

 This took way longer than I had anticipated but I like how it turned out. See ya soon!

Linking up with Centsational Girl, Shabby Nest, Positively Splendid, Adorned From Above & Between Naps on the Porch!