A Pin Test #9: A Holiday Star

image via Lekker Fris

Okay, it's A Pin Test #9 and I fell hard for this beautifully styled photo and this holiday star made by Miranda at Lekker Fris when I first saw it on Pinterest a few weeks ago. I thought it would be something fun to try and not to expensive to make.

You can read more about my discouraging start here. Once I got going this was probably easier than I expected. Here's the rundown.

1) Chose the wood. I decided to use pre-cut dowels that were already 36" long. That saved me time, but probably cost me just a little bit more than if I had purchased one long piece of wood and cut it myself. But in my life right now I am trying to learn to keep things simple in terms of how much time and energy I have to give things. The simpler the better.

2) Stain the wood. I chose a driftwood gray stain which gave the wood an nice aged patina. I haven't worked with stain for a while and I was surprised how fast and easy it was. I brushed it on with a sponge brush and wiped all the pieces down about 10 minutes later. By the time I was done staining the fifth piece it was about time to wipe down the first. So this went fast.

3) Let it dry. My least favorite part because I just want to keep working on things. With the humid and sometimes rainy weather it took longer than normal. That's the bummer about doing craft projects outside in the winter months.

4) Lay out the wood pieces. This was the tricky part although in the end it came together splendidly. It just takes a little patience and experimentation to layout the pieces in the best way possible.

5) Lash it together. I used white cord to tie all the joints together, putting all the knots on the backside. I used a lighter to melt the ends of the twine - and I burned one of my fingers good. Par for the course. I seem to have to hurt myself with every craft project over the last few years.

6) String the lights. It was a bit of a challenge to find a short strand of clear lights with a white cord. I found a 50 bulb strand at Target for just $2.50 which was great. The big trick was stringing the strand. I seriously attempted this 8-10 times to get it right. I finally strung the strand tight enough that the last bulb stretched to the first. It was touch and go there for a while when I kept coming up short.

7) Plug it in and enjoy. I put it on my mantle and loved it. The one thing I need to work on still is making sure that it's stable enough. It's pretty big and I'm afraid it will tip over easily. I need to come up with something to take care of that. Here's the final project.

I still need to work on the arrangement on the mantle, that isn't finished yet, but I moved things out of the way to try the star there. I might even just leave the star there along. I'll have to play with it this week. But in the end I was really happy with this project and grateful for another successful Pin Test.

You can see another great holiday Pin Test here. And if you looking to make your home smell holiday fresh try this.