Origami Christmas Ornament

Hi Friends.  It's been a very long time.  We are now settled into our new house in Singapore, and I'm getting into the groove of school runs, activities, and also making new friends.  It's been a very busy time and I've been seriously neglecting the blog.

I have been pondering a post on organising an international move (or any move for that matter), and it will be appearing at some time in the future.  For now, let me share with you something that has been keeping me busy.

I was wandering through IKEA's Christmas display, when I spotted this cute little origami star:

Origami Star from IKEA display

When I got home I did a google search and found two terrific tutorials for folding German Paper Stars (also known as Moravian Stars).  There was a really excellent video tutorial by Lorraine Hebler and a photographic tutorial by Origami Resource Centre.  Using both these tutorials I have mastered the German Paper Star.    It's really very easy and makes incredibly cute Christmas ornaments.

With Christmas approaching, I wanted to make a cute (and inexpensive) gift for each of my girls classmates.  I decided to make each classmate a German Paper Star ornament.  The only supplies needed to make the stars were a pack of A3 paper, and some gold string.  I bought both of these from a local stationer for under $10.  I also needed some cellophane bags and some gift labels for packaging.

I started by cutting 1.5cm strips from the long edge of the A3 paper.

Once I had the strips, I randomly selected two colours for each star and started folding.

Slowly I made a pile of stars.

Eventually I had 50 stars.

I used my Cropadile to punch a hole in each star, threaded a gold string through each and knotted the ends.

Each star was packaged into a cellophane bag with a printed gift tag attached.

The girls have told me they were a big hit with their classmates.