Silver, gold, and all that glitters belong to the holiday season. For the color palette of my living room, featuring creamy whites, shades of tan, and seaglass blue with silver and glass accents, silvery three-dimensional stars make festive seasonal decorations. I'm very pleased with how these turned out and love them for several reasons. One, they fit with the glittery, shimmery holiday season. Two, they were free for me to make. And three, I love using something that would otherwise go to recycling or into the trash.
A couple of years ago, I showed you how I make 3-dimensional paper stars, using the covers to catalogs (any stiff paper will work), glue stick, hot glue, and scissors. Aside from the cost of the glue sticks, these are basically free to make, putting something like junk catalogs to good use.
The other day, I had my can of silver spray paint out and thought it was time to give these a coat of color.
Out in the garage, I gave five large, 8-inch diameter stars a couple of coats of matte silver spray paint, front and back.
Using some white quilting thread and a needle, I transformed the stars into suspended decorations. After I threaded the quilting thread through the tip of each star, I tied a knot in the thread at the length that I felt was right for the area above my mantel.
Craft and discount stores (like Michael's JoAnn's, and Walmart) sell a double-sided removable adhesive that is safe for painted walls, Removeable Glue Dots Adhesives. (Here's what they look like -- I have no affiliation with Michael's BTW.) These dots are a lot like that sticky substance that you find holding a new credit card or gift card to its paper backing. Here's how I used the glue dots to suspend the stars from the ceiling. With one glue dot for each star, I pressed the knotted end of the length of thread into one side of the glue dot, then pressed the other side of the glue dot onto my smooth, painted ceiling.
From a normal distance, when standing or sitting in the living room, you can barely see the thread hanging from the ceiling, and you have to get very close to see the glue dot (or else my eyes are getting really old.)
I'll be making 4 more stars in a scaled-down version, so that I have a display of 5 large stars and 4 smaller stars suspended from the ceiling above the mantel. As I continue to add to the holiday decor in the living room, I'll update you on how these are all fitting into the mantel's scheme.
