I’m so excited to be a guest on Ladybug Blessings today. Kristen has so many fun things going on and I love being along for the ride! Thanks for inviting me to share a project today!

I am Tammy and my blog is She Wears Flowers. I like to say that I blog to avoid housework, but, really, I do anything I can to avoid housework! I am a mom to twin big girls (9) and a little girl (3) so my life is pretty much girls and their girl things. My three- year-old has a “strong” personality and is often the subject of stuff I come up with. Today is no exception!

My daughter is generally dressed up in multiple outfits throughout the day–with shoes and accessories& to match or not match as is more common. Sometimes she changes clothes and sometimes she just keeps adding on to the previous set. Either way, her motto seems to be something along the lines of “The more, the better!”

Materials:
Both:
1/2 – 3/4 inch thick wooden star (wood) or 2 felt stars cut from pattern
3/8 inch wooden dowel – 12 inch length
silver spray paint
narrow ribbon in various colors
beads
hot glue

Wood Star Wand:
drill
glitter paint
base coat paint color
long, skinny nail
sand paper

Felt Wand:
needle and thread
small amount of fiberfill

Instructions
Wood Star Wand: Using the pattern, cut out star with a scroll saw or jig saw and sand the edges smooth. You can buy a variety of precut stars in the craft stores, but none of them were what I wanted. Feel free to use a different type if that fits your needs better. Make sure it is thick enough to have a 3/8 inch hole for the dowel.

Use the drill to cut a 3/8 inch hole for the dowel. You will want to “wiggle” it around a bit to make the hole just slightly larger than this. You could probably use a slightly larger drill bit, but I went for the easiest method and I didn’t want the hole to end up too big.
Paint the star with the base coat color. I skipped this step and regretted it because the glitter paint is a little thin. I think I have about  27 coats of paint on this star, but it worked beautifully. The directions actually suggest using a base coat, but I ignored -and then regretted – that!

Paint the star with the glitter paint. There are lots of different types of glitter paint, but this is inexpensive and was exactly what I wanted.

To let it dry in between coats, I  propped it on a straw in a glass with another cup inside of that to hold the straw so the whole thing didn’t tip over. This way I could also paint both sides and the sides at the same time.

The paint turns out glittery and sparkly, but there are no little glitter pieces to scatter all over your house.  It turns out exactly the way it looks on the wrapper of the bottle.
If you get any paint in the hole for the dowel, scrape it out so the hole will not be too small for the dowel.

Hammer your nail into one end of the dowel. Push the nail into styrofoam (even floral foam works since it is light) or one side of a cardboard box (not flattened) so your dowel will stand up. Spray paint with silver paint. Let dry completely.
Put a small amount of hot glue all around the top of the dowel and push it into the hole in the star as far as it will go.
Felt Star Wand:

Cut out two stars from felt. I used the rounded edges from the pattern when I was cutting, but trimmed it more pointy after sewing the felt together.

Using a needle and thread, sew the felt stars together leaving a small opening at the bottom for the dowel. I tied a knot in the thread and put the needle in the inside before I started the sewing so that the knot would be hidden inside. I ended the same way. I used a large running stitch (more like a basting stitch) to sew around the felt being sure to keep the points of the star together.

Gently fill the star, points first, with very small amounts of fiberfill stuffing. You just need a little to make the star puffy and soft. Do not overstuff as it will stretch out the stitches. Squeeze the star gently to make the opening gape open.

Put glue around end of dowel and quickly stuff into the opening. While the glue is still soft, carefully pat the felt together to seal the ends and to glue the felt to the dowels.

Adding the Ribbons (both wands):Cut varying lengths of narrow ribbon in a variety of colors.

Tie beads on to the ends of some of the ribbons. I chose to keep the beads to a minimum since I didn’t want the wand to be heavy–or used as a “weapon” since I know it can quickly turn into that sometimes!

Tie all of the ribbons around the dowel at one time. Do not pull really tight.

Put hot glue around the top of the dowel at the base of the star and quickly slide the ribbons over the glue as close to the star as they will go. Immediately pull the ribbons as tight as you can and put tiny dots of hot glue around the knot to hold them.

These wands would make excellent handmade gifts for an older child to make for a younger child. With just a little help from you to get the parts ready, an older child could do most of the work of painting, sewing and putting it together on his or her own.
And, to easily wrap up something so awkwardly-shaped, you could make one of THESE and just slide it in (and tie a tight knot!) until Christmas morning.

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