Let the season inspire you! Display your creation at home, or delight someone special with a homemade gift.
What you need:
• Construction paper, craft paper, stiff giftwrap, magazine pages
• Pencil, glue or tape, scissors, needle
• A cup, about 4 inches in diameter
• Wire hanger
• Thread or string
• 1 quarter
• 1/2-inch jingle bells
What you do:
Stars
1. Trace the mouth of a 4-inch cup, and cut 8 to 10 circles.
2. Fold a circle in half. Fold in half again, corner to corner. Fold again to create a wedge shape. (When you open your circle you should have eight pieces of pie.)
3. Place quarter in the center of circle and trace.
4. Now, cut along each crease, stopping when you reach the center circle. Don’t cut the middle.
5. Form each of the eight cut segments of the circle into star points. Lay a pencil in the center of a segment with the point facing out to the edge of the paper. Wrap both sides of each segment around the sharpened point to make a cone. Secure point with a dab of glue or bit of tape. When finished with each segment, you’ll have a star.
6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 on each circle.
7. Thread a piece of string (with a knot on one end) and poke it through the center of the first circle, so that the needle exits through the folded side of the circle. Pull until the circle stops at the knot. Repeat with remaining stars, but make sure the needle exits through the unfolded side of the circle.
8. Pull the ends of the string together and tie in a simple knot. This should cause your circles to become bunched into a porcupine star.
9. Cut the string to the length you would like to hang it.
Geometric Bells
10. Trace, cut, and fold more circles.
11. Next, make one cut from the edge to the center of the circle.
12. Overlap and glue the paper, forming a cone shape.
13. String a needle and thread (knotted on the end) through a jingle bell. String the thread through the interior of the cone. Tie a knot at the end and cut the string to your desired length.
Assembly
14. Using your hands (or pliers), manipulate and twist the triangular shape of the hanger into a different shape.
15. Tie your porcupine stars and geometric bells (or any other cool mobile design you have created) to the hanger.
