Do You Want To Admire All Our Handmade Heirloom Easter Eggs?

Because kid-made or not, if they've survived two entire childhoods of seasonal abuse and they're still kicking, they're heirlooms now!

RIP to most of our handmade stash, which did NOT survive two entire childhoods of seasonal abuse. To be honest, some of those earlier kid-made eggs got covered up by later efforts, so they're possibly still kicking around somewhere behind fifteen coats of paint, some tissue paper, and lots of Mod Podge. I'm genuinely a little sad that all our papier mache eggs that I cut open so we could put treats inside were eventually destroyed, but Easter eggs with jellybeans inside take a LOT more abuse than Easter eggs without!

This is the sole survivor of the papier mache eggs, probably because it's too pretty to cut:

The kids made these in 2013, when they were eight and six. Look at those little hands!

Complete with a Christmas shirt and chipped nail polish for maximum little-kid effect.

We made the felted wool Easter eggs even earlier, when my only big helper was my five-year-old. Her rainbow egg is a masterpiece!

We "cheated" that day and felted these in the dryer because it was cold outside, but felting wool is an awesome outdoor activity for a little kid. Who wouldn't want to spend a warm afternoon splashing around in soapy water?

And look what that tiny artist was capable of just five years later! I think this dragon flying over the mountains is my absolute favorite of all our heirloom Easter eggs:

That was a big year for woodburning, and woodwork in general. A Girl Scout Woodworker badge led to all kinds of projects, from stomp catapults to PVC pipe weapons to rediscovering all their old building blocks--and how they could be painted and woodburned, too!--to the set of woodcarving tools that the Easter Bunny left them just a couple of weeks later.

I'm pretty sure this galaxy egg was a pandemic project when EVERYTHING was galaxy-themed:

We've also got galaxy Christmas ornaments made that year, and I feel like there were a lot of galaxy food attempts. I don't think any of them particularly worked out, but in the process we all ate a lot of activated charcoal, so at least we got our systems all cleared out. Not the worst thing during a pandemic!

This hot glue embossed egg was a proof of concept more than anything:

I LOVE how it turned out, but for some reason we never made any more?

The big kid and I later used that same technique to make potion bottles for Halloween, though, and we made several that I still pull out every year.

And then there was the mandala year--

--which may have been the same year we discovered novelty painting?

I display this every year, but in my mind it's still unfinished because I want a big white star there on the blue. Maybe this year!

One year I was SO excited about the idea of simply using wood stain, but then when I made this first one I thought it was super ugly:



I actually really like it now, though? I wonder if I've got any different colors of wood stain kicking around out in the garage that I could try...

This year, my partner jumpstarted each kid's personal collection of heirloom Easter eggs with an egg that he painted for each of them and put into the care packages we sent to them at school:

Just between us, we're at the point with care packages where I'm wary of putting something I made into them lest the kids complain--I apparently "do too much," which I'll just tell you in case you ever think of saying that to someone else is most directly translated in the ears of the recipient as "You are too much," and the people it's told to don't feel real cool about it.

But joke's on them, because now if I want to send them something handmade I just make their father do it. They're obsessed with their father, so they inevitably love it, and I'm fine being the power behind the throne.

Now, off to puppetmaster my way into a grad photo shot list that the big kid agrees to because I've manipulated her father into acting like each pose is his idea...

P.S. Want to see what other mischief I (and the cats) manage to get up to? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page for updates!

This Is How You Hand-paint Wooden Easter Eggs

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World!

These hand-painted Easter eggs are just as fun as the plastic ones–but they’re beautiful enough to keep forever!

It can feel almost impossible to avoid plastic Easter eggs. They’re cheap, they’re pretty, you can put treats in them, and they are EVERYWHERE. I don’t have a blanket hate for plastic eggs–I'm happy enough to thrift them!–but the world does not need more brand-new plastic *anything*, and there are so many other meaningful, eco-friendly options that are just as fun and a LOT more beautiful.

Such as wooden Easter eggs!

Some of the wooden eggs in my current Easter stash are a full 15 years old, and those eggs painted with the little-kid techniques of my then 5- and 7-year-olds are honestly even more precious to me now than their more recent creations of galaxy, Captain America, and shark-themed eggs.

Whether you’re a little kid or all grown up, the technique for hand-painting wooden Easter eggs is super accessible. Here’s all you need, and how to do it!

Materials

• wooden Easter eggs. I’ve always bought all of my unfinished wooden eggs from Casey’s Wood Products in Maine. If you check out their online store at just the right time, you can even get lucky and find second-quality wooden eggs for cheaper.
• primer. This is an important first step in painting unfinished wooden eggs. Any kind of primer will work, as long as it can be used on wood. I often use the same Zinsser that I use for my walls, but I also really like Rustoleum’s Paint+Primer spray paint when I want a base coat that’s not white.
• paint. Again, nearly any kind will work! I use primarily acrylics, as oil-based paint is a Whole Other Thing that I have no desire to mess with. House paint works great, especially the little 8-ounce samples that you’ve definitely got on hand if you dither as much about wall colors as I do. Craft acrylics and artist’s acrylics are both terrific, and paint pens are indispensable for detail work.
• paintbrushes.
• (optional) sealant. If you’ve got polyurethane sealant on hand, it’s perfect for making these painted wooden eggs shiny and impervious to damage. Mod Podge is less resistant to damage, but also works. But if you don’t mind eggs that aren’t shiny, acrylic paint doesn’t actually need to be sealed. Sealing the egg also means that you can’t repaint it later, and a LOT of my stash of wooden eggs have been painted and repainted and repainted again. Not every wooden egg painted by a 10-year-old has to treasured forever, ahem!

Step 1: Prime the unfinished wooden eggs.

This is a simple first step that will keep your beautiful hand-painted embellishments from soaking into the wood.

Using the primer of your choosing, give each egg one or two coats, then let it cure for the time recommended on the primer’s packaging.

I keep a lot of paint on hand, so my favorite time-saving technique for these eggs is to use a spray paint plus primer to give the eggs their primer and their base coat simultaneously. This is perfect for my galaxy eggs, for instance, which are black with galaxy embellishments, and my Captain America egg, which is mostly red. If you plan to paint wooden eggs as a family or kid activity, it can also be nice to start off with eggs base-coated in a variety of colors. It’s a fun little boost to creativity!

Step 2: Paint the wooden eggs.

This is where you can really let your creativity prevail! There is no limit to how you can paint an Easter egg, whether it’s abstract or hyper-realistic. I’ve got all kinds of abstract Easter eggs, several galaxy ones, two that look like the Jaws movie poster, one for every Avenger, more rainbow eggs than you’d believe, and as of this Easter, one wooden egg painted for each of my kid’s colleges, already tucked into their Easter-themed care packages (along with these treat-filled paper Easter eggs!) and wending their way across the country to them.

It’s a matter of personal preference, but I really like to use house paint or craft paint for larger areas, artist’s acrylics for more detailed areas, and paint pens for the tiniest, most specific, or most accurate details. You can add infinite layers and additional details as long as you let the layer beneath dry first. Use masking tape or stickers as stencils or to tape off areas, and make your own templates by drawing very lightly with pencil directly onto the surface of the egg.

When you’re finished, don’t forget to sign your artwork!

Step 3 (optional): Seal the finished Easter egg.

The only tricky part about polyurethaning or Mod Podging these Easter eggs is that you have to let the paint fully cure first, then let the sealant fully cure again before the finished Easter eggs are ready to roll. In a pinch, I’ve been known to collect up all our newly-painted eggs after Easter and polyurethane them before putting them away for the season.

These wooden Easter eggs are sturdy enough to last for an entire childhood’s worth of Easter egg hunts, and after that, you’ll love seeing them on display. I’ve got my favorites of our painted eggs sitting on my coffee table in my kids’ childhood Easter baskets, and I’ve only cried a few times looking at them.

Summer break can’t come soon enough for me!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, encounters with Chainsaw Helicopters, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Pumpkin Pounding: A Halloween Project for Small Children

 

This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World way back in 2009! 

Encouraging my children's independence is VERY important to me. Not only is it easier for me to parent two small children who can pour their own milk and put on their own coats and carry their own balance bikes up and down the front porch stairs, but it's also a priority in my parenting that my girls see themselves as capable individuals who can handle challenges and perform the meaningful work of day-to-day living. 

Because of that, carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns can be a really frustrating experience. 

I do permit my children to cut with sharp knives (with supervision), but not to use them on something as thick and unwieldy as a pumpkin. Although there are around-the-house materials that make pumpkin carving an activity more appropriate for small children (subject for a later post), my girls' favorite Jack-o-lantern craft is something that we call pumpkin pounding.

Pumpkin pounding is a hands-on activity that uses real tools on a real pumpkin, and each of my girls was able to do it with help at age two, and independently by age three. The best part, however, is that in the end, depending on how enthusiastic a pounder your kid has been, you end up with a real, live Jack-o-lantern for sitting on the porch steps and popping a candle inside. 

You will need:

• field pumpkin that's not too round. You want to be able to sit it on its various sides, as well as its butt, and not have it roll all over creation.
• hammer. You can lay out a variety of hammers for your kids to experience, but the best tool for them is one that's as light as possible but has the widest hammer head
• nails. Again, lay out a variety to try out, but the best ones are as wide as possible with the widest head
• knife and scraping tool and whatever else you'll need to cut the top of the Jack-o-lantern and scrape the insides

1. Set the pumpkin up in a space where kids have enough room to swing a hammer, and where they can get in the correct hammering position--a low table or the floor or a bench, etc. 

Be prepared to leave the pumpkin in that space for a few days, to give the kids the chance to come back over and over to this activity independently. 

2. Show your child how to press the tip of the nail into the pumpkin flesh until the nail is held there by itself. That's the safest way to hammer, but older children can also be taught how to gently tap the nail into place with their hammers. 

For kids younger than three, you may need to set up a handful of nails like this for them to hammer. 

3. Let your child hammer nails into the pumpkin. 

Remind them not to hammer the pumpkin just for the heck of it, but pumpkins are extremely sturdy and surprisingly forgiving, and even though your kid will hit the pumpkin a LOT, and HARD, as they're aiming for that nail, it's not going to crack.  

4. At about five years of age, your kid can also learn how to use the claw end of the hammer to lever the nails back out of the pumpkin when she's done hammering. Otherwise, you'll probably need to do this, so give her plenty of nails to work with before she needs your help. 

5. The Jack-o-lantern will show best with as many nail holes as possible, so feel free to take a whack at the pumpkin yourself. It's amazingly cathartic. 

6. When everyone is completely finished with the pounding (and this may take several days), cut off the top of the pumpkin, and scrape out the insides to finish it. Pop in a candle, and enjoy your pretty pumpkin. 

My kids and I are, for some reason, inordinately fond of our autumn-themed craft projects. What are your favorites?

The Best Homemade Christmas Present: Painted Building Blocks

The putting away of childish things is progressing, but it is a LOT harder than I thought it would be. The existence of the kids' playroom has allowed me to ignore all the once-beloved but long-ignored toys that they possess, since they're all stored tidily on shelves and not in the way.

But with one teenager headed off to college very shortly, I've promised the other teenager that we can remodel the playroom into a private bedroom just for her. It's long overdue, since the kids have shared one small bedroom for their entire lives without (much) complaint, but even I admit that I can no longer expect two nearly-grown adult children to continue sharing their decade-old IKEA bunk bed in their single tiny bedroom during college breaks.

I want to shrink these children back down to ages four and six just for a few hours, just so we can play blocks again while listening to Amelia Bedelia books on tape.

Anyway, we've already handled picture books and toy animals--

--we organized the LEGOs back during the pandemic lockdown, around the time that my partner got rid of almost all of the Barbies and their stuff (and no, I still haven't started speaking to him again...), and a couple of weeks ago, with a present idea for my toddler niece in mind, I decided to take care of the blocks.

The kids have a vast, well-loved, much played with building block collection. They wouldn't even be embarrassed to tell you that they played with blocks well into their teenaged years, because blocks are freaking AWESOME. Included in our collection were lots of scraps and seconds, though, so, first I sorted through all the blocks to cull the ones that the kids had had fun playing with, but weren't worth saving. Then, my partner helped me wash the blocks that we were keeping--and WOW, was that water gross!

We put most of the squeaky-clean blocks into storage bins--and I even separated the marble run blocks from the building blocks, a chore I'd been wanting to do for the entire time we've owned the marble run and yet somehow never got to--but first each person in the family picked out several blocks for a very special project:

My partner and the big kid each painted a few blocks, but the little kid and I got VERY invested in our individual block-painting visions and spent most of the weekend just like this:

The little kid designed her block set to resemble the work of one of her favorite artists, Mary Blair, specifically to mimic the Disneyland It's a Small World aesthetic. Here's how her blocks turned out!

I love how her blocks allow one to connect a line or continue a color in interesting ways.

I wanted to paint a set of triangles with a connecting rainbow on one side--

--and a complete color wheel on the other. Here's how that turned out!

I like how you can mix them up:

These are some more that we painted:

Obviously, we couldn't pack them up and mail them to our favorite toddler until we'd made sure that they work properly!

They work great!

Not gonna lie--I am VERY likely to dig some more building blocks out of storage so I can repeat this project, either for my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop or just for fun. It was QUITE satisfying, and I was left with the feeling that there's lots more to explore regarding block painting and pattern building.

P.S. Want to see what other mischief we (and the cats) manage to get up to? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page for updates!

How to Clean and Refurbish Old Wooden Building Blocks

This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World.

Wooden building blocks are an heirloom-quality toy... IF you treat them correctly. 

Which my children did not do! 

For at least a full decade, I collected--and created!--wooden building blocks for my two children. For that same amount of time, my kids played HARD with their blocks. These kids built with them inside and outside, in the sand and snow and mud. They painted them and printed with them, mixed them into potions and put them into slime. They forgot them outside, spilled juice on them, and absolutely loved them dearly. 

And it shows! 

One of my teenagers is weeks from moving off to college. I'm helping the other prep their long-disused playroom into a new bedroom that she won't have to share with her sister during college breaks. This means that I've had to finally start confronting all of these childhood toys that are no longer played with. It's time to decide what the kids want to keep for posterity, what they want to donate, and what we might want to upcycle. 

Regardless of what choices we do with my kids' HUGE stash of old wooden building blocks, they all still have to be cleaned and refurbished first. One can't simply toss blocks sticky with old slime into storage, or donate muddy blocks, or upcycle blocks stained with who-knows-what-please-don't-tell-me.

Perhaps you, too, have some old blocks that you'd like to make look new again. Perhaps you've obtained some blocks of uncertain provenance, and you want to make sure they're clean and safe to play with. Or perhaps you've bought some scraps or seconds that you want to ready for play. 

Whichever it is, here's how to deep clean wooden building blocks and simple wooden toys. Here's how to refurbish them, and even how to polish them up so they look beautiful and fancy and like the high-quality heirlooms that they are. 

To completely deep-clean and refurbish most wooden building blocks and toys, here's what you'll need:

• cleaning solution. I hate that I love Go Clean Co.'s homemade all-purpose cleaner so much. I used to be a straight up vinegar-and-water gal. That first wave of the pandemic got me panic-cleaning with a lot of less-natural cleaners, and I haven't yet entirely weaned myself off of them. In particular, that Tide+water+bleach combo is SUCH a dang good degreaser and stain remover--ugh! For a much more natural cleaning solution, sub your favorite natural laundry detergent for the Tide, especially if you think it does a good job fighting stains without a lot of extra spot treatment. That's why my frenemy Tide is such a solid all-purpose cleaner! Unless your building blocks have been through some shocking scenarios quite recently, they shouldn't need the addition of a disinfectant.
• large storage bin.
• large blanket.
• sandpaper. Moving through the different levels of sandpaper annoys me. Fortunately, 150-grit sandpaper is rough enough to remove most stains and marks with not too much elbow grease, while leaving the surface smooth enough for play.
• wood polish (optional). This isn't necessary to refurbish your building blocks, but it does make them look even more high-quality and feel that much more luxurious.

Here's how to clean up and refurbish the dingiest of building blocks!

Step 1: Sort the winners from the losers.

If your building blocks are well-loved, and/or consist of hand-me-downs, thrifted finds, and scraps or seconds, first sort through them and see what blocks actually deserve the spa treatment, and what blocks may just want to move on with their lives. 

My own losers' pile consists of blocks that have large knots or other flaws, oddly-shaped seconds that look more like scrap wood than toys, and the occasional piece that's clearly part of some other toy set, like wooden railroad tracks, that we didn't keep or never owned. 

My kids loved and played with all these blocks just the same as they did with their "nice" blocks, but there's no need to store them for future play. Instead, I'll keep some for woodcarving or other craft projects, and we'll roast s'mores over the rest. All the rest of the blocks that you want to keep, upcycle, or donate should be cleaned. That's the next step!

 

Step 2: Wash those filthy blocks.

As you can see, you can wash even blocks that have been painted. You can wash natural blocks like tree blocks, even ones with the bark still on. Vintage blocks are washable just like new blocks. You can even wash carved wooden toys, like peg dolls and stackers. 

The only blocks that I do not put into the communal wash solution are the ones that we've already highly embellished. These consist of blocks that my children painted as "art blocks," blocks that I've decoupaged with paper or fabric, and blocks that we've wood burned and stained. I hand wash each of those blocks individually with regular dish soap. 

The cleaning solution is dead simple. All you need are a small amount of stain-fighting, degreasing laundry detergent, and lots and lots of hot water. Also remember that a little bit of laundry detergent goes a LONG way, especially when you don't plan to rinse. Avoid oily additives like tea tree oil, because the goal is to get these blocks squeaky clean with no residues. 

Soak the building blocks in the cleaning solution for a couple of hours. Stir them around every now and then to make sure all the blocks have their turn getting nice and clean. Do NOT soak your blocks for several hours, because water and wood aren't actually friends. An old plastic tub works great to hold everything. Although don't do what I did and add so much water that you can't lift it back up to the sink to drain it. SIGH!

Dump the clean blocks out on an old blanket (or the back side of a vintage He-Man bedspread, ahem...) and let air dry.

  

Step 3: Sand stained or marked blocks.

To clean up blocks that have an old yellowed finish, or are stained or marked, sand them with 150-grit sandpaper. You can also sand the blocks to remove unwanted paint or varnish, although PLEASE use lead-safe practices for this! Use a palm sander to speed up the process. 

When I'm sanding blocks to refurbish for more block play, I also round all corners and edges on each block. I don't know why historical children got to play with so many pointy things. Today's toddlers prefer to keep all their eyeballs intact, thank you!

  

Step 4 (optional): Polish with a natural wood polish.

When I'm refurbishing blocks for more block play, I often paint them and seal them. But there's a lot to be said for providing children with simple, natural, unfinished wooden blocks as well as brightly painted ones! Kids don't always need every single sense stimulated to the max, and wood is already so beautiful on its own. If you leave your blocks unpainted and unvarnished, a nice way to shine them up and make them look marvelous is simply to polish them with a natural wood polish. Your clean and dry blocks can now be stored as heirlooms, embellished and upcycled into fun, new playthings, or donated to someone who will love them all over again.

P.S. Want to know more about my adventures in life, and my looming mid-life crisis? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Make a Fabric Wall Hanging

 This tutorial was originally published on Crafting a Green World in 2016.

If you're a fabric hoarder collector like me, then you completely understand that fabric is art. 

 That being said, of course there are times when you want to showcase that beautiful fabric of yours not on a body, or even on a quilt, but instead displayed on the wall like the art that it is. 

 Making a fabric wall hanging is a little more complicated than just nailing a length of fabric to your wall (that wouldn't work because the fabric would pull and warp), but it's actually not much more complicated. The trick is to attach the fabric to something that you CAN nail to the wall. 

 Here's how to make that fabric wall hanging happen! 

 You will need: 

  fabric. I'm using a panel that's 20"x54". It's a print of The Hobbit's book cover that I bought from Spoonflower, and it's my current Most Favorite Thing. Ideally, your fabric panel will have a margin of at least 2" at the top and bottom that you don't love. If not, then sew a narrow strip of fabric at the top and bottom. 

  wood. You'll need two thin boards, around 1"-2" wide and each a little longer than the fabric panel. I've still got a bunch of boards in the garage from when I tore out the closet in the kids' bedroom last year, so I cut one of those up for this project. 

 glue. You can use a variety of glue for this project, but hot glue is the least fussy. 

  1. Cut your panel to size. You need an extra 1"-2" at the top and bottom of this panel where you're going to attach it to the wood, but the sides of the panel can be cut flush to your pattern or hemmed to be so. Take care to cut the top and bottom of your panel completely parallel; otherwise, your panel will hang wonky!  

You can also starch the fabric at this step--here's how to make homemade fabric starch. 

  2. Prepare the wood. Because I'm cutting down an old board for this project, I also needed to sand it and stain it. You can paint your boards in a custom color, as well, or leave them natural. 

  3. Attach a hanger. Choose the board that will be on top, then attach the hanging hardware to it. There are several ways to do this. You could nail on a picture hanger or wire, attach an old belt, or do as I've done and drill a hole at each end of the board. 

After the fabric is mounted to the board, thread a length of clothesline or paracord through each hole, back to front, and knot it in the front. 

At the back, hot glue the cord from the place where it emerges from the hole straight up to the top of the board--this will keep it from flipping the board sideways when you hang it. 

  4. Attach the fabric to the wood. This part is a little fiddly, because you want your panel to hang straight and even. Going in small sections, glue the top two inches of the top of the panel to the back of top board. Be careful not to stretch the fabric as you work, and take care to keep it level. 

 Repeat for the bottom of the fabric and the bottom board. 

 Your fabric wall hanging is going to look great wherever you put it, but when you're tired of it, just cut it away from the boards and make it into something else!

How to Design and Create a Wood Star from Scratch

I'm back again with more tales of the Wonders of Geometry! 

 Have you ever found an online tutorial or template that you love, but it's not quite exactly what you're looking for? Maybe the thing that you really wanted to make is a few inches bigger or smaller or has a differently angled curve. The heart wants what it wants, you know? There's often no need to settle for something less than your vision because often, creating your own template from scratch is surprisingly workable. Here, for instance, I'm going to walk you through how to create a template to make a wood star. 

 No matter how big you want your star to be, or how many points you want it to have, you can make the pattern for it completely from scratch, and the assembly is the same no matter which type you create. So grab your ruler and grab your scroll saw, because it's time for some hands-on geometry!

Tools & Supplies

To make your own wood star from scratch, you will need:

• Scrap wood. Old barn wood is practically de rigueur for making wood stars (and you should definitely score some if you can!), but old pallet wood gives much the same effect and is often much more easily obtainable, and scrap pieces of clean, new wood require less sanding and much less prep work before painting.
• Ruler and compass, OR template and a straight edge. You can draw your star template completely from scratch using a ruler and a compass, or you can skip a few steps by using my template of concentric circles with divisions already marked.
• Scroll saw or circular saw. Technically, you can use any saw that will cut a straight line for this project, but I like using a circular saw.
• Sandpaper. A palm sander is unnecessary but saves a ton of time.
• Wood glue and wood putty. Because your star won't come together by magic!
• Drill and bit (optional)

1. Create the Pattern for Your Wood Star

If you want to start completely from scratch, use your compass to draw a series of concentric circles on a piece of large-format paper. Start with a circle with a radius of 1", and draw each successive circle with a radius 1" larger, until you've reached the maximum diameter of the star that you want to make. For a large star that makes a good tree topper, I like a circle with a radius of 7". For a smaller star that makes a good ornament, I like a circle with a radius of 4". Next, choose the number of points that you want your star to have, double that number, and evenly intersect your circle with that number of lines. For a four-point star, then, you'll need to divide your circle into eighths, and a traditional five-point star will need a circle divided into tenths.

 There are a LOT of benefits to having a spouse who's a graphic designer, and one big benefit is being able to get custom concentric circles divided according to my specifications! The pattern piece for your wood star will be a diamond. To draw the diamond, you're going to use your segmented concentric circles template. The bottom of the diamond is the center of the circle, and the top point will touch the largest concentric circle. Make a dot where one of your lines touches this circle. Go to the next line that segments the circle, and decide which smaller concentric circle represents where you want the widest part of the diamond to be. Make a dot where that line touches that circle, then connect the two dots using a straight edge. The next line around the circle gets a dot up high, and the line after that gets a dot down low. Connect all those dots, and you've got half your template made. To finish it, trace the lines from each low dot down to the center of the circle. This will complete your star, which is now made from a series of identical diamonds. Below is the template on which I drew a four-point, five-point, and six-point star in different colors: 

 My largest circle on this template has a radius of 7", so the entire star will be 14" in diameter. I chose the circle with a 3" radius to mark the widest part of the diamond for each star.

2. Cut the Star Pieces Out of Wood

Cut out just one of the diamonds from your paper template, and trace it onto the wood. Repeat until you have all the diamonds that you need to construct the star, then cut them out.

3. Sand the Star's Points

Arrange all your diamonds so that they make your star, and make sure that they're all nice and even and everything fits together snugly. Don't worry if you've got some gaps, because you can fill those in later with wood putty. 

 In the photo above, see how my star fits together nicely, but looks raggedy around the edges? The faces that will show on the finished star aren't super smooth, either. Solve this issue by sanding all of the faces that will show on the finished star, and then use the sandpaper to round the edges on the star's points. That's all it takes to turn your star from chunky and amateur to polished and professional!

4. Glue the Star Together

Gluing the diamonds together to construct your star is a pain in the butt, because your star probably won't have any parallel lines to clamp onto. I've seen woodworkers use shims to correct awkward angles while clamping, and I've also heard of woodworkers advocating using tape instead of clamps for these kinds of irregular figures, but my main strategy is just to fuss over it. 

 When the glue has cured, sand away any excess from the front and back of the star. If you plan to paint it, fill in any gaps in the joins with wood putty, then sand again when the putty has cured.

5. Embellish!

There are so many fun ways embellish and display these stars! To turn your star into an ornament, drill a hole through the top point.  To mount it on a dowel as a tree topper or table stand, drill a hole the width of your dowel into the bottom. You can draw and paint on your star, decoupage it and glitter it, or leave it simple and unadorned. 

 However you choose to embellish your star, a couple of final coats of polyurethane will seal it and keep it new-looking and shiny, because a star this beautiful and well-crafted is a keepsake and heirloom!