Making your own Christmas decorations is not only rewarding. It’s also fun and it gives your One Two Tree a really lovely home made feel. With a little creativity and a bit of motivation you can easily make our rainbow wrapped ceramic stars. Not only do they look beautiful, they’re a simple craft activity perfect for the kids to join in too.
You will need: star shaped cookie cutters, a rolling pin, rainbow string or wool and air drying modelling clay. DAS modelling clay would be our choice if you were going to go for the prepacked stuff which you can easily purchase from any craft shop. We used some recycled clay from a friends ceramic studio which we had to fire in a kiln. Obviously we don’t all have access to a kiln and a potters studio, so this is where the air drying stuff comes in very handy.
Just like if you were making cookies, you roll out your clay flat to just under a 1cm thick. Best to do it either on a breadboard or cutting mat. Then you simply press your star cutters into the clay and transfer your perfect shaped stars onto a tray to air dry. Leave them to dry for 24hrs. If they feel a little uneven or rough get a wet sponge and lightly rub the clay smooth. We left our stars without a tiny hole in them as we wanted to wrapped them in rainbow string. If you wanted to leave them plain you could pierce the top of the stars before they are completely air dried with a drinking straw to create an even hole. That way you can easily loop them with the string and tie a knot.
Once your stars are air dried and hard to touch cut off roughly 30cm of string. Then experiment with wrapping and knotting different combinations around your stars. Then cut roughly 12cm of string so you can tie a loop and place the stars at the ends of your tree branches. Attach your loop string by threading it through the wrapped design and tie off the ends.
Other ideas. We left our stars plain white but you could easily get creative and start painting them with acrylic paints or drawing on designs. You can use Posca paint pens, two toning them with spray paint or stenciling on a design. Apply gold leaf, add glitter, glue on plastic gems or beads. Raid your local craft store. There are so many options. When your stars are still soft you can embossed them with buttons, shells, stamp designs and scribe in words or letters. Another idea is to mosaic them with the prepacked and pre cut tiny squares you can buy from spotlight. So many choices and so many ways to sparkle up your One Two Tree this Christmas. Stay tuned for more DIY’s to come. If you have any questions please feel free to get in contact with us. Happy Crafting!
