Wednesday, December 1, 2010

[Almost] No Sew Burlap Tree Topper (Christmas in 25 Days No. 3)

Hello, hello! Before I start with today's tutorial, I have to show you one of the cutest pictures of Riley taken two days ago.


Look at that chocolatey mess! I promise I have never seen anyone get that messy eating a cookie! What he does is he digs the chocolate out with his fingers and eats it. He is such a choco-holic! (I wonder where he gets that from...?) ;) I wish I had a picture, but last night my dad had a Chocolate Eclaire for dessert and Riley got up from where he was sitting and RAN to my dad, who had the chocolate, of course! He asked my dad, "Please chocolate?" Ahh! Gotta love those moments:)

Now, on to the tutorial. A little side note: this didn't 100% go as planned, but it did work. You see, I think anything can be hot glued. Everything. I still think that, but sometimes it doesn't always go as planned. I hope you can tweak it as needed to get what you want out of it!:)



You will need:


  •  Burlap
  • A star template (Mine was about 13 in x 13 in- one of my metal stars that hangs on the wall)
  • Scissors
  • Wire cutters
  • Pliers
  • Sharpie(s)
  • Needle and thread
  • Hot glue gun
  • A metal hanger
  • Something to stuff the star with (grocery bags, fabric scraps, actual polyester stuffing, etc.)
  • Any ribbon, buttons, rhinestones, or other embellishments you want to add
Fold your burlap in half (so you have two layers) and lay the star on top.


 Then roughly trace around the star allowing extra room.


Take your two stars apart.
I had the genius idea of "labeling" the back of the star, but ended up gluing it so one of the "B"s for "back" is showing.


 Hot glue all around the perimeter of your star, but leave one point open for turning the star "right-side-out" and for stuffing it.
Using burlap, it was kind of hard to turn it "right-side-out", so I used a pen to push the points out.


Stuff the star (I used grocery bags). I had also stitched the word "Rejoice" on the front of the star and added rhinestones for the dots on the "j" and "i".

You will also need to unwrap your wire hanger. Then, using your hands and the pliers, straighten it out. Once it's basically straight, shape it into a spiral that is smaller at the top and gradually gets bigger. You will then insert the wire where the "v" between the two bottom points on the star is and hot glue it in place.
I was so into working on this I did not take pictures of that step. If anyone has any questions please leave a comment below and I will do my best to help you out!:)


Then add the star to your tree!:) I felt like it was missing something, so I added some left over gold ribbon from the picture frame tutorial to it above "Rejoice."


I hope someone can get some ideas from this tutorial. Like I said, it wasn't the best, but I'm very happy with the way the star turned out. It is on the tree in the basement:) I'm thinking tomorrow's tutorial will be a tree skirt to match...

Until next time, toodles!

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