magical window star tutorial

Last week Saint Nicholas left us the Magical Window Stars book along with a packet of kite paper. We have made window stars in the past out of origami paper and the book also suggests using tissue paper. The kids have been asking me every day to make some window stars with them since we got the book, and we finally got to sit down and make some earlier this week. This window star tutorial isn’t in this book, but is one that is pretty straight forward and uses a square piece of paper.

First take your square piece of paper and fold and crease it top to bottom, and then side to side, creating a “plus sign” grid across your paper.

(Ignore the extra folds you see in this picture. We back tracked a bit to take these photos. Those folds will come later).

Then take the first corner and fold it into the center point of your page. By doing the previous folds, you should have a very clear center point. Repeat with all four corners.

Once you have all four corners folded and creased down to the center line, you will gently unfold each one so that you can glue them down into place. We used a glue stick.

Next you are going to take two opposing corners and fold their points into the center of the page.

After both sides are folded, go back to glue them down and into place. This just ensures that they stay where you want them to.

Next you are going to take one of the long ends and fold both of the sides sharply in to the center line, kind of like you would if you were making a paper airplane. Again, once you have made your folds, go back and glue your sides down.

Tada! You have finished your first star point. Yours should look like the one pictured above.

You will have to repeat these steps eight times total, on eight separate sheets of paper, to create this eight pointed star. You can pick whatever color arrangement you would like, or make it a solid color. Once you have all eight, you can arrange and glue them together, or you can glue as you go like we did.

You will take your star point and align it with the center line of the previous star point and the very center point with the other star center points.

These stars are something that all ages can enjoy creating. While my oldest can create them all on her own, I can help set the folds and my younger people can help with the creasing part and gluing part. You can also experiment with different sized sheets and color patterns.

As the light shines through these magical window stars, the results are always beautiful.

Here is one star that I did make out of the book. It is called the five pointed star metamorphasis. This is one that I would suggest waiting to glue together till you arrange the points. I love how you can look at any of these stars and see multiple patterns and images in them.

These stars really are magical, and so pretty and easy to make…and can be kind of addicting. Happy magical window star making!