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A Makeshift Christmas: Foil Star Mobile




I'm going to be making a lot of our Christmas decorations this year. Last year we barely bothered, Mikey was only a year old so wasn't particularly interested. We put up some lights and that was about it, we didn't even get a tree.

Here's the first thing that I've made, a mobile.




It's made from cardboard, kitchen foil, transparent thread and a twig from one of the trees outside. Just things that were lying around the house. Want to know how to make your own?

You will need

Cardboard, mine was from a recycled mailing box.
Kitchen foil.
Transparent thread, although you could use any kind of thread or even some ribbon or twine if you have it.
Twig, mine was about the length of my forearm.
Elmers glue.
Tape
Pencil
Scissors

Take your cardboard and roughly draw a whole lot of stars on it, they don't need to be neat and tidy unless you want them that way. Cut them out.

Spread out a sheet of foil, scrunch it up a little if you want your stars to look wrinkled. Apply glue to one side of a star and press it down onto the foil. Cut around it, leaving the foil between the points of the stars, you'll need this to fold over the edges.

Cut a line down the middle between the points of the stars. Apply glue to the side of the star legs which does not have foil and fold the spare foil over. Repeat this on the opposite side until the entire star is covered with foil. Repeat for all stars.

When your glue is dried you need to attach your stars to the twig. I tried to space them out a little so that they were different heights, but it's up to you. Tie one end of the thread to the twig and then measure (eyeball) how long you want it to be and cut. Tape the thread to one of your stars. Repeat for all stars, being careful not to tangle them.

To hang, tie a ribbon or some thread to the middle of the twig. Make sure it will hang fairly straight where you've tied it, My twig was a little heavier on one side so I had to move my ribbon along. Then you tie a loop in the ribbon and hang it somewhere!




I'm totally pleased with how mine turned out, when I got the idea I only half expected it to look good! When they're hung in a window they reflect the light beautifully.



These instructions of course aren't set in stone, play around with them and think of different ideas. You could add glitter, or instead of using a twig you could hang them on something circular. You could add silver ribbon to each star to make them look like shooting stars. Anything you want, it's your Makeshift Christmas!

If you decide to make this, let me know how it goes by leaving a comment! I'll link to all of the pictures I'm given!

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I am a 24 year old British stay at home mother to a two year old boy. Married to a U.S. soldier and currently living in Germany.

I have seen the Vatican from the very top of St Peter's Basilica, the mud in the World War I trenches outside Ypres. I have walked through Montmartre side streets bustling with people in the evening, gotten lost in the streets of Greenwich Village NYC, run through cornfields on the Welsh border and sat outside with a cup of tea watching fireflies in the fields of the outer Chicago suburbs.

I have held the hands of others through addiction, fear, suicide, despair and come out the other side. I have left everything behind to begin anew.
I have fought mental illness and walked through snow in the mountains of the lake district, England. I have explored the morgue in the bowels of an abandoned hospital on a summer evening, climbed to the top of scaffolding on the outside of a five floor warehouse to look at the city lights of Nottingham at night and I have watched the sun setting on the Texas horizon.

I have held my son's tiny hand through the plastic window on an isolette in the NICU ward. Walked, speaking only in whispers, through the catacombs beneath the ground on the outskirts of Rome and seen the fireworks over Heidelberg castle.

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