Western General Store

I love rusty stars and bells and decided to make my own star garland. I cut eight 4" stars out of 1/4" plywood on the scroll saw, but if you're not a wood worker find wood or metal star cut outs at the craft store. You could use any kind of cut outs like hearts, angels or crosses. I drilled two little holes in each star and spray painted them with 'Autumn Brown' textured spray paint. Joann's had 60% off this carton of rusty bells so it was around $6 and I might have used half of them. I cut the brown 24 gauge wire a little over 5' long. Then just start threading the stars and bells onto the wire. The bells have little ties on them and they could be cut off but I left them on there just in case I needed them. I slid one end of the wire through one hole in a star, then the other hole and repeat to secure it. I slid on a bell to the middle of the star and threaded the other end of the wire through the other hole....

We have a lot of wood around the shop and I'm always trying to come up with ideas. I decided to make chunky wood stars that would stand on a counter, shelf or table. These are cut with a band saw out of red oak. The small star is 1 3/4" thick x 7" wide and the large star is 1 3/4" thick x 10" wide. I left them unfinished for creativity such as painting, staining, varnishing and decorating. These stars can be purchased from the website here . In the next post I'll show you how to use these stars to make a candle holder.