Roads to Safe Places

Beautiful stars! I didn't know the lucky ones yet, but always wanted to make the other one.

My favourite and easy-to-make window decoration are "dragon stars" made from "dragon paper" (etwas stabileres Transparentpapier, das man als großen Bogen kauft, geht aber auch mit normalem Transparentpapier). They look lovely with red or white paper, due to the shading of the different layers, and can be made from any kind of translucent paper for the window - or any kind of paper for all kinds of uses.

German instruction for Dragon Stars

You need to cut 8 rectangles of paper of approx. 9x5 cm (or a similar ratio); the final diameter of the star is the double lenght of your longer rectangle side. Fold them like shown on the images until you have 8 miniature paper dragons (are these also called dragons in English?) When you have all parts folded, try laying them into a star form to your liking - either with the longer sides or the small sides joined, always half a dragon overlapping the other. When you know how you want it, glue the half parts together carefully with as little as possible of translucent glue.
Here is a picture of a multicoloured star which hopefully shows how the parts fit together well enough.

It's really easy to craft, even if it looks a bit difficult and my explanation certainly doesn't make it easier ;o).

Otherwise, my favourite kind of stars are Fröbelsterne, which I make from thin, white "Ramieband", a special kind of textile ribbon, or sometimes also from (on two sides) coloured gift wrapping paper. They are not easy to make, though, and require some practice, but I love their simple and elegant, 3D look. I have made quite a lot over the years and hang them in large bunches from green branches or wreaths, or hang them from bare twigs, together with red felted decorations, or we lay them on the branches of our Christmas tree.