Basic Wrapping Tutorial

The first style of wrapping that we are doing to do is a basic no-seam wrapping with a belly band and basic shoe-lace bow. As you can see below, the box is wrapped in fuschia suede paper with a belly band in a contracting color and texture (gold, wood grained paper). One of the benefits of the belly band is that you can use some of your scraps of paper since you only need a small section of paper. Also, if your edges are wrinkled, frayed or imperfect, you can fold them to the underside.

 

 

The bow is a simple shoe-lace bow that you tie the two loose ends as you would shoe laces. There are two ribbons used here. The wider ribbon is a fuschia colored organza wire edged ribbon. The top ribbobn is a gold organza ribbon. You place the smaller ribbon on top of the larger ribbon beneath the box. Take the two ends and bring them around the sides of the box and tie them like shoe laces.  The benefit of this bow is that it lies flat on the bottom of the box.  The only problem with this bow is that it does not stay tightened and gets a little loose near the knot. You must pull the loops very tight or the ribbon and bow might fall off the package.

 



Tomorrow, I will demonstrate the way to cover the box with paper.

Wrapping Tutorial--Materials

Today is the first in a series of tutorials on wrapping the perfect present. We will begin with the materials necessary to beautifully wrap a gorgeous gift. Please keep in mind that you do not need all of the materials that I am showing you. As with anything, the better materials you have the easier the job will be.

The first item on the menu--rules and straight edges. I use a variety of rules to help in the cutting of paper. Also, I use rulers to make pleats in the paper when I want to wrap a special gift. Quilter's rules really help in that they are clear and easily marked. A grid ruler also comes in handy. I especially like the grid ruler that has a metal edge so you can use your rotary cutter or a scalpel while using the ruler. I also use a several lengths of cork-backed rulers as well. 

The second item that I use is a variety of tape. I primarily use 3M double sided tape without liners. I also use double sided take with liners for other projects but not for wrapping. I usually have two widths of double sided tape--1/4 and 1/2 inch tape and dispensers. I also use Scotch brand tape during the wrapping process. While it might seem like overkill, I have a separate dispenser for each size tape. I find it easier to have separate dispensers rather than having to switch out each roll of tape every time that I use a different tape (for some inexplicable reason, I have 1/2 inch tape on two separate dispensers--I have no idea why this happened when I took this picture).

There are a variety of miscellaneous items that I also use that make the job easier--a glue stick, a bone folder (the one pictured is a Teflon folder that does not leave marks when using on paper), scissors, scalpel, and a glue gun for adhering stubborn items and thick paper (this is a low heat glue gun which is definitely preferably when working with paper).

Other necessary items are twine (this is colored baker's twine that is available in several colors) and loads of ribbon. I was always taught that a package is naked without some time of material to hold the wrapping together. I prefer to use wire edged ribbon in a variety of sizes but also have trims, gingham ribbon, satin ribbons, and various other types of ribbon. Pictured here is also a tape measure that should have been included in the rulers above. A quick measurement with a tape measure saves lots of time and wastes less paper.

One organization trick that I use for my ribbon storage is snack sized Ziploc bags. Also, I take the ribbon off of the spools and put them on paddles made from scrap Davey Board. I can store a lot more ribbon in a smaller space by keeping it flat and taking it off of those giant spools.

Finally, there are all sorts of holiday decorations that I add to many of my holiday gifts. The wrapping and decorations become a gift unto themselves. Here is a collection of holiday ornaments, garlands, specialty papers, tags and ribbon that I use during the holidays. I find it easier to keep them in an extra suitcase that I can bring out during this special time of year. Also, since I give gift wrapping lessons and attend gift wrapping parties, it is much easier to simply roll my suitcase from venue to venue. Many times, my gift to my friends is a free gift wrapping for that special present they want to give that special someone.

 While I will be demonstrating gift wrapping ideas for the holidays, these tutorials are good for any gift wrapping occasion.

Holiday Wrapping One



Sometimes you just don't have a box to fit the item that you want to wrap. Other times, the box that you do have is too large for the wrapping paper that you have on hand. If you don't want to design your own wrapping paper then the only other option would be to make your own box. 

Here is a custom order for a handmade box for a very special item that will be given away for a birthday. Here is the bottom half of the box. The bottom of the box is 11" by 16" by 3.5"  Here is the unlined bottom of the box.



 

 

 

Here is the actual bottom of the box. This is wrapped with an entire sheet of paper that has cutouts so there are only seams at the corners. This is an nontraditional way of wrapping boxes with handmade boxes. Normally there is a lining on the inside and on the bottom. With this method, there is one continuous sheet of paper that is cut so that it folds over itself and over the walls of the box--only leaving a need for a liner on the inside of the box.

 

 

 

For every box bottom, there is a need for a box top.  Here is the top of the box being constructed. The rubber bands hold the box top together while it dries. The box top and bottom are hand cut from Davey Board to fit the contents that it will hold.

 

 

Before covering the box top with paper, it is best to do a dry fit to make sure that it will fit the box bottom. I don't want to mention the number of times that I have had to remake a box top or bottom because I was in a rush and just assumed that the tops and bottoms would fit. There are many reasons why they tops and bottoms wouldn't fit--mis-measuring, paper thicknesses, boxes out of square. So in short, you should always dry fit the tops and bottoms.

 



 

 

The linings of the tops and bottoms are paper covered museum board in order to give the tops and bottoms more heft. Also, if for some reason you need to cover some mistakes in the top and/or bottom, the museum board allows you to cover those errors. Here is one of the liners done in a matching gold paper that corresponds to the gold in the Japanese paper.

 

 

Here is the liner being weighed down for its final drying. The bricks allow for more all over pressure to make sure that there is full contact. The bricks lie atop a piece of scrap Dave Board so that the bricks do not indent the liner paper or museum board.

 



 

 

Here is the final product. I am very happy with the final result. More importantly, I am very happy with the way that the pattern matches on the box top and box bottom.

Why I have been away for so long...

I am very happy to say that I can now explain my hiatus from this blog.  I have just signed my new book deal with Lark Crafts/Books. I can't tell you the topic of the book but you can be certain that it has to deal with paper.

The main reason that I haven't been able to post on my blog and participate in the Iron Craft challenges is because the company wanted to ensure that the projects that I was developing would not be shown anywhere else before they come out in the book.  Now that we have finalized the projects in the book, I can now start posting and participating in other crafting projects and can also share them with my faithful followers and readers.

The first series of posts will deal with Gift Wrapping. I hope that you will follow along.

Halloween Decorating 3

This is the last of my posts on Halloween decorating. Someone asked me a question about using the Jack-o-Lantern punch and what kind of ideas that I had in using it. There are two punches that were available. The EK Success punch that I gave away to my friend. The second punch is the Martha Stewart punch.

 

The first idea that I had was a flat card that could be used for any number of occasions. A note in a child's lunch. A note left for a loved one around the house. This can be used alone or with a business sized envelope.  This is simply a layered card with the punch used on the overlay (the orange layer) that was then glued to the black background. You can use this with any standard envelope or get a nice vellum envelope if you want to dress it up.

 

 

 

 

The second idea was a simple A2 card that used a purchased fold-over card (in orange) that was then punched and lined with while paper. Once again, this card can be used with a standard white envelope or a vellum envelope.

 



 

 

The third idea was a place card for a dinner party. This is a reverse card that uses the smaller card on the outside in black card stock. This allows you to use a silver or gold marker for the written name. If you are unsure of your handwriting you can reverse the colors and send the orange card stock through the printer for the inking of the name of the dinner guests.

 



 

 

The final idea was using the Martha Steward punch which is an anywhere punch that allows you to punch anywhere on the page. I am not a fan of this punch because you can't see where on the page you are punching and it also can only be used on thin card stock (60 lb or less). It does not work well on thicker card stock or patterned card stock. 

 

Where the punch did work well was on handmade envelopes. Also, who says that you have to use traditional Halloween colors during the season.

 





Halloween Decorating 2

There were to decorations that I wanted to spend a little bit more time discussing on how easy it really is to take something simple and turn them into something special. I usually use these trick when decorating for Christmas but as luck would have it, I saw some really nice Halloween items that could be altered.

 

The first idea is to take something for one purpose and decorate it for the holidays. I always believe that a gift of decorating should leave them something that they can repurpose or reuse for the future holidays. In this case, I took a clear pumpkin cookie jar and filled it with Halloween items. Here are some glow in the dark stickers and eyeball bouncing balls. To fill up the jar, I flooded the bottom of the jar with flavored tootsie rolls. For Christmas decorating, I will use clear vases or bowls and fill them with decorative glass ornaments.

 

 

 

 

For the second idea, I found these glitter skulls on sale at Target and decided to give them a hair style by using Tootsie Pops and Blow Pops. These were a big hit and can easily be refilled since the holes are already in place.  This simply was nothing more than pushing the sticks into the Styrofoam heads. Once you start adding weight, you need to evening place the candy so that there aren't heave spots that then make the heads fall down. For Christmas, I usually use the Styrofoam trees, cover them in ribbon and put spiced gum drops (connected with toothpicks) as ornaments.

 

 

As you can see, these are really easy decorations but can transform something simple into something more fun. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort but just a little imagination.





Halloween Decorating1

For those people who have been reading my blog, you know that I am not a big Halloween person. I don't dress up in costumes, I don't decorate, and I don't hand out candy. I really don't know why I have never been a huge Halloween participant but I'm just not. Now Christmas is a totally different story.

So, image my quandary when the performers in our current show decided to do a Secret Santa for Halloween--they called it getting "Boo"ed. I decided to play along. I decided to Boo my of my friends who works in the wardrobe department--mainly because, she REALLY REALLY gets into Halloween.

After a trip to Target and the Dollar Store, I came up with some decorating ideas for her workstation.
I decided that I didn't want to get too fussy with the decorations and I also needed her to be able to work at her station so I had to keep that in mind.

Step One was to put up some Halloween lights. These were free because I had a Buy One Get One Free coupon at Target. So, I convinced them to let me buy Christmas Lights and then get the Halloween lights for free. There lights are orange and purple on the same bulb. They are pretty bright but it is a full look.

 

Step Two was to put up a garland that I got from the Dollar Store. Since the process was getting "Boo"ed so I thought This was a cute garland. I could probably have made this myself and will probably do something similar for Christmas. The shapes are easy to cut and gluing or even stapling the figures on ribbon would be very easy.

 

 

Step Three was getting stuff. Most of this stuff was found at the dollar store. The drink cozies were each one dollar. The stuffers were $1 each as well. The pencils, stickers, sticky eyeballs were all easy to just display.  There is also a Jack-o-Lantern punch as well.

 



 

Tomorrow I will share some decorations that took a little more effort.

Another 3D Snowflake

I can't seem to stop myself with these 3D snowflakes. Here is another example of how simple and easy these snowflakes are. This is a larger version which is much easier to make. The overall size is about 7" tall and about 8" wide.

I learned from the mistakes I made in the first version of the 3D snowflake that I make for Just Crafty Enough.

Lesson One--score the snowflake in half on the vertical plane before sewing. This makes it easier to to sewing and to later fold at 90 degree angles to make the ornament appear 3D.

Lesson Two--sandwich the two FOLDED snowflakes together when sewing them. The crease will create a groove that allows you to follow the center of the snowflake arm that you are sewing. This is equivalent to sewing down the center of a text block when you are sewing a pamphlet stitch.

For this snowflake, I decided to use a black thread (previous versions used a brightly colored thread for illustration purposes) and I also decided to leave the middle of the ornament open. In this example, I stitched from the inside of the ornament to the end of the snowflake arm (as previously mentioned) but I tied off a knot on both ends of the bottom arm.  For the top arm, I tied off a knot in the on the bottom of the top arm and then tied a loop to the top arm and tied it off.

The beauty of this example is that the 3D effect creates the star in the center of the snowflake so I didn't want the thread to be visible.

Paper Ornament #5

 

This week is my final ornament for the Advent Calendar project on Just Crafty Enough. I knew that I wanted to do a paper cutout for my final ornament and I wanted to do something that was easily adjusted for different skill levels.

This is a 3D snowflake ornament. Here is the master image. This is a clip art image so you can copy and use it for your personal use. You can enlarge or shrink the image for the size of ornament that you prefer. Please keep in mind the orientation of this image. The image is only symmetrical on the orientation that you see above. Notice the two vertical  bars in the above image--they must be vertical and not horizontal--for this to work.

Needed Materials

Two snowflakes
Sewing Needle
Thread (preferably clear)
Glue stick (optional)
Beads/crystals--top and bottom holes (optional)
Scissors/cutting utensil
Card stock

Assembling
There are three variations of this snowflake. These directions will be based on the snowflake above with the floating star on the inside.

Step 1: cut out the interior star from each of the snowflakes. Simply snip the star at each point where it touches the snowflake.

Snowflakes with the center stars cut out.
Notice that one is the corrent orientation
and the other is not.

Step 2: layer the two stars on top of each other. Trim each arm of the star so that it will freely float inside of the snowflake.

Step 3: thread your needle.

Step 4: layer the two snowflakes on top of each other. In the bottom arm of the snowflake, working from the inside of the opening to the point of the arm, start stitching down the middle of the arm until you reach the end. I use three stitches for my sample. If you don't use a bead for the bottom of your ornament, tie a knot at the end of the snowflake.

Notice that there are only three stitches
and the bottom has already been secured with
a knot and a bead.

Step 5: cut off the excess thread and needle.

Step 6: thread your needle at the opposite end of the thread.

Step 7: repeat sewing the opposite arm of the snowflake (the top arm). Pull the thread taut before tying off but not too tight that it pulls the paper out of shape.

Notice that the ornament lies flat.
This is how it will appear in your Advent Calendar bag.

Step 8: form a loop at the top of the ornament and tie off.

Step 9: match the two stars and place glue on one inside surface. Sandwich the two stars on opposite sides of the thread. Be sure that there is clearance between the star and the interior walls of the of the snowflake.

This is the final shape of the ornament before placing it in the Advent calendar bag. It will be placed flat inside of the bag.

Final Assembly
To make the flat ornament into a 3D ornament, simply fold the arms around the thread at 90 degrees to each other. Take your time since it gets a little fussy towards the top of each arm. You might want to get a flat instrument to help you along (bone folder, butter knife, exactly knife, etc.)

Optional Options

You can leave the center open in you want. In the version below, I placed a bead above and below the snowflake and left the center open.  In the other version below, I placed beads above, below and in the center of the ornament. I used beads because that is what I had on hand but crystals could easily be used.

Also, you can use colored papers, glitter papers, and any number of other items to color coordinate these ornaments. These also work on a larger version and as garland.

Paper Doodles 3

Today, I wanted to make a flower. I don't know why.  It was supposed to be a daisy but could be a black eye Susan. Then, I wanted to practice on thin cuts so I made some roots. Roots have to go beneath the Earth so I made some zigzag dirt. And flowers need rain to grow--so I made some rain.

Paper Doodles 2

Today's exercise was a lesson in consistency. I wanted to practice two ideas--could I train my eye to consistently gauge a straight and equally dense line and thin connectors.  The top triangle was designed to see how thin I could get a line without breaking it while constructing free hand. The two side panels were designed to practice straight lines and gauge (or consistency in thickness of line). In the left panel, you can see that I got a little wonky--while the lines were consistently the same thickness, the positive space got a little crooked. In the right panel, the lines were the same thickness but the starting and ending points were consistently the correct angle.

The bottom panel was supposed to be a harlequin pattern of diamonds but I got tired of cutting them out and ran out of time.

Paper Doodles

This week I thought that I would share one of my paper doodles with you. While working at the theater, I often have a lot of free time. Since I removed the cable TV from my station, I have even more time on my hands. Lately, I have been playing with paper and cutting utensils--either scissors, a scalpel or an Exacto knife.

I have been  known for my intricate paper cuts but I wanted to see what would happened if I just allowed myself to play. Of course, there have to be rules when playing (that is the OCD in me):

• Only the minimum of tools--a ruler,a cutting mat, a cutting utensil, one sheet of black paper, a white china marker (the paper is black on black), and a line marking the center of the page (horizontally and vertically)
• Spend no more than 15 minutes cutting the project

Here is the first example. I don't know what it is but it seems to be staring at me. Or maybe an ode to global warming. Who know what the subconscious is about?

Origami Cubes--Part 2



Boxes with the room lights on

People have asked me to show them how the origami cubes can be used as ornament/light covers. I decided to recycle some old sheet music from the office to illustrate. The sheet of paper is about 7 inches square which produces an ornament that is approximately 2 inches on all sides.

Some of the music is printed on one side of the page and others are printed on both sides. For the sheets that are printed only on one side, I used the printed side on the inside of the ornament and for some, I used the printed side on the outside of the ornament.

I used a typical strand of holiday lights and for illustration purposes made 30 ornaments.

Here are the results:


Boxes with the room lights out

Paper Ornaments 4--Origami Cube

This is the second paper ornament of this week for our Advent Calendar Project. When Kathy asked me to design some paper ornaments, I knew that I wanted to do at least two different types--an origami ornament and a paper cutout ornament.  The paper cutout ornament will be my last contribution to the series.

This ornament has a special history for me. When I first moved to NYC, I was short on funds for my first Christmas in the city. I move to NYC in September and I was working three jobs to make ends meet--so, I didn't have a lot of money for decorations that year.  That year, I decided to buy a couple of strands of holiday lights and hang them throughout the apartment. Rather than have bare bulbs blinking through the night, I decided to make these "Christmas presents" paper ornaments and placed the open end over the bulb unit so I would have blinking, origami presents.

If you choose to put these on your tree as light covers, please be sure not to leave the tree unattended and be sure to use good quality thick paper and low voltage stringed lights.

Supplies

• A six inch square piece of paper. (this will produce a flattened ornament that is 3 inches in length). The final blown up ornament will be 1.5 inches on all sides.
• A piece of thread or embroidery thread for the loop.
• A long needle to thread the folded/flat ornament. You can improvise here and use anything over three inches in length that can punch a hole and carry thread.

There are several locations to find the instructions on folding this ornament.  Search for a water bomb origami or water balloon.  The base instructions can be found here (water bomb base) which includes the instructions for the balloon as well. If you prefer to watch your instructions, you can watch a YouTube video here (water balloon).

Assembly

• Fold your water balloon but do not blow air into it.
• While flat, thread your needle and place the needle in the opening of the balloon where you will eventually blow air.
• Send the needle to the opposite end of the unit (the other pointed end with no opening).
• Pull the thread through.
• Tie a loop with the knot on the outside of the unit.
• Pull the thread so that the knot disappears into the body of the unit (pull the knot through the open end of the unit).
• Place in Advent Calendar Project Bag.
• When the recipient opens the bag, teach them how to blow into the ornament and shape it into a cube.

Note: Several of these should fit into one of the advent bags. Once you show the recipient how to open the first ornament, let them open and shape the remaining ornaments.

The photo above shows the threaded ornament before it gets placed into the bag.

There are several varieties of this ornament you can use. You can use the balloon as a light cover for twinkling lights (no need to thread them). You can also use some beads and knot the ornament in place, place beads on either end of the ornament and make a garland.

Paper Ornaments3--Circle Ornament

This week, I was asked to design another paper ornament for our Advent Calendar Project. This is probably the simplest of the ornaments that I will design for this project.

Supplies Needed:

• Circle Punch (I used a 3.5 inch circle punch)--you can simply just cut the circles with scissors as well).
• Card stock (you can use single sided, or double sided card stock; you can even use old holiday cards)
• Glue Stick or Hot Glue Gun
• Double sided tape with liner tape--one piece
• Thread or embroidery thread for the loop
• Transparent Tape--one piece

Assembly:

• Punch out 7 to 10 circles out the card stock of your choice.
• Fold each circle in half.
• Glue each of the halves to each other until all circles are glued together. You should have two half circles without glue when you have completed (one in the beginning and one at the end).
• Take the double side tape and remove one of the liners. Place the glue side down on one of the unattached halves.
• Turn the ornament over to the other unglued side. Make a loop with the thread and tape it down to unglued side of the ornament.

The photo (left above) shows the double sided tape with liner (the binder clip is only to keep it shut for photographing). The photo (right above) shows the loop as attached with transparent tape. You can choose to glue this if you want. Theoretically, you can use one piece of double sided tape for the loop and to close the ornament.

You will place the ornament as shown above in the Advent Calendar Bag. The recipient will open the bag, take off the liner of the tape and will then "close" the ornament by bring the two unglued sides together--yet another interactive surprise ornament for the recipient.

Paper Ornaments 2--Paper Ball Ornament

For the second ornament this week, I decided to share with you one of my favorite paper ornaments--the paper ball ornament. This is so easy to do and once again, uses your favorite paper scraps.

Ornament #2--The Paper Ball Ornament

Materials
Paper strips of 1/2 inch width
Hole punch or awl
Two brads to fit the size of the hole you punch
Piece of embroidery thread or fishing line for the hanging loop.

You will need 12 to 15 strips of paper that are 4 to 4.5 inches in length.

Preparing the Ornament

• Stack all of your pieces on top of each other, right side up.
• Punch the entire stack of strips with two holes, 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the top AND bottom.
• Place the one brad through the entire stack at the bottom hole.
• Place the other brad through the entire stack at the top hole.
• Tie a loop around one of the brads at this point.

This is your finished ornament as you put it in the Advent Calendar. You should be able to place many of these to fill up your bag.

Assembling the Ornament

• Carefully, start separating each layer of the ornament from top to bottom. Because each of the ends are secure, the ornament should start taking a rounded shape.
• Continue separating the layers until all layers are separated.
• Start shaping the ball so that it has an even shape. You can use fewer or more layers depending on how full you want the ball to be. I prefer to use 12 layers and have some space showing between the different segments/sections of the ball.

Once again, the beauty of this ornament is that you can use a variety of paper and paper scraps to coordinate your holiday tree. Also, these make great gift tags if you tie them to the bow of your present. You can write the name of the recipient on the back of the flat ornament and allow the recipient to make their own ornament for their tree. These are fun in larger sizes hanging from the ceiling as party favors.

Paper Ornaments 1--Onion Dome Paper Ornament

This week, I was asked to submit some ideas for paper ornaments for our Advent Calendar. I will be doing a series of five different ornaments based using paper and will be split into three separate entries. Each of my ornaments require the recipient to interact with the ornament to "bring it to life" before placing it on the holiday tree. There are several benefits to these ornaments--one, they are based on paper scraps that everyone has in their craft room (or this gives you an excuse to go out and by some beautiful new papers that you want to have in your stash) and two, you can make many versions and stuff your Advent Calendar bag full of these lovely surprises.

Ornament #1--The Onion Dome Paper Ornament

Materials
Paper strips of 1/2 inch width
Hole punch or awl
Two brads to fit the size of the hole you punch
Piece of embroidery thread or fishing line for the hanging loop.

You will need five strips of paper--two that are 4 inches in length, two that are 3 1/2 inches in length and one that is 3 inches in length (all strips are 1/2 inch in width).

Preparing the Ornament

• Take one of the longest pieces, right side down.
• Take one of the middle pieces, and place on top of the longest piece, right side down.
• Take the short piece, and place on top of the middle piece, right side down.
• Take the remaining middle piece and place on the small piece, right side up.
• Take the remaining long piece and place on the middle piece, right side up.
• Align all of the pieces by the bottom edge and punch a hole 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the bottom.
• Re-align all of the pieces by the top edge and punch a hole 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the top. Put brad through this hole. Tie a loop of thread or fishing line around this brad.
• Place the remaining brad in any single hole of the ornament.

This is your finished ornament as you put it in the Advent Calendar. You should be able to place many of these to fill up your bag.

Assembling the Ornament
When your recipient opens up the bag, there will be a flat ornament. To build the ornament, take out the brad from the single hole of the ornament (do not remove the brad from the hole with the loop).

Align all of the holes from the loose ends of the ornament (this will give it the onion dome shape) and place the brad through all of the holes of the paper strips.


For this ornament, you will need strips of 1/2 inch in width (please keep in mind that these dimensions are solely based on the 4 inch by 4 1/2 inch Advent Calendar bags. These can be made in any dimensions and look beautiful in larger sizes).

The beauty of this ornament is that you can use a variety of different papers. I used patterned paper with white backing for illustrative purposes but you can use any number of double sided papers, or reflective papers/card stock, etc.

Ornament #2

For this week's ornament we were asked to make a star ornament out of toothpicks. Of course, I had to make a paper variation.

I cut two stars out of black paper. I kept the interior star for a later project. I wanted a cut out in the middle so that the colored lights from the tree could shine through.  The middle piece is a patterned vellum paper that is shaped as a border for the star. Instead of being a border, it becomes the middle piece of the ornament.

The possibilities are endless with this ornament. The paper could be a different color, The vellum could be a different color or a different pattern. This could be used as a gift tag or an added bonus to a present--a gift and an ornament.

To show the full effect, I had to break out my holiday lights. Here is a rough idea what the star would look like on a tree.