Star Light, Star Bright

Christmas is such a magical time of the year. Family and friends come together and remember all the beautiful moments they’ve shared while creating new memories to see them through the new year. It’s a time of joy and peace, everyone seems kinder and more relaxed.  For us Christmas means spending quality time together, finding each other again. We talk, laugh and give our souls and bodies a chance to recharge. Celebrate this special time and create a beautiful star that symbolises our love for each other,  renews our faith and brings hope into our lives.

Star light, star bright. Bringing faith, hope and love to all

What you need to make a star light:

• Wood off cuts, we used pallets
• Wood glue and nails
• Battery operated string lights (at least 8 m long)
• A 5 point star template
• White wood stain and black paint tint

To make the board

Cut the pallets into 7 pieces measuring 57 cm long for the front of the board and 2 pieces 53 cm long for the back support. The length of the back pieces will depend on how wide the pallets are, ours were 7.3 cm wide. Place the 7 pieces lengthwise side by side and glue the back pieces across the 57 cm strips leaving a gap to thread the string lights through. Thread the string lights through the gap and screw and clamp the back pieces. While you wait for the glue to dry, print the 5-point star or if you’re like me and don’t have a BIG ass printer, trace the star using lots of A4 pieces of paper taped together. You could also draw the star freehand – I tried but the star just looked wonky.

Place the template on the front of the board and hammer a nail in each point

Once the glue is dry, flip it over and position the template on the front of the board. Hammer a nail in at each star point and remove the template. We used Gripseal wood stain to stain the front white and then we added a drop of black paint tint to the wood stain and dry brushed over the original white stain. In the picture below you can see the white wood stain with no tinting (left) and where the tinted paint has been dry brushed on (right).

Painting the wood using white wood stain and a light grey tint

All that’s left to do is wind the string lights around the nails, starting at the top and moving down to the right bottom nail, then up to the left, then across to the right, then down to the bottom left and back up to the top. Repeat until all the string lights have been added.

Add some light and give thanks

And in the words of Norman Vincent Peale, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”