DIY {Origami} French Paper Stars & free printables

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Learn how to make French Paper Stars (with the origami technique) in a few easy folding and unfolding steps. Free printables included for 17 different French stars! 

I love making handmade decorations for my home … you might have already noticed that by now:) And Christmas, beside all its beauty and magic, is yet another great opportunity to do that. I sometimes like making complex projects that involve many steps and require many ingredients, projects that challenge me and my creativity, but sometimes I find myself wanting to try smaller projects that only need a few ingredients (some of them which I might already have around in my home). All handmade projects require patience, you could say that is the extra ingredient that they all have in common. But when you are happy and super excited with the final result, you forget all about the hard work, especially when your project is finished and is ready to be admired by everybody :)

Today’s project falls in the second category, the one with only a few ingredients … but one that requires some patience. Some Origami patience, if I may say so, because there will be some paper folding techniques involved.

I’ve always wanted to try Origami (the Japanese art of paper folding), so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make some beautiful French paper stars ornaments for Christmas.

The whole idea of these origami French paper stars starts with pentagon shapes. Yes, some simple pentagon shapes, a little bit of folding and unfolding and  you’ll have some of the most amazing handmade ornaments for Christmas.

So to make things easier for you, I’ve made a few a lot of pentagon designs with some of my favorite French graphics from The Graphics Fairy. I’ve made some small, medium and large pentagon collages, you can click on the image you like and download it on your computer.

UPDATE:
I’m starting a new and exciting collaboration with Karen / The Graphics Fairy and I’m gradually making some of my collages and printables available for FREE download on her website.
Click on one of the images below to go to The Graphics Fairy and download the templates I made for this project ♥

It’s preferably to print the pentagon shapes on regular paper (white or colored), I’ve learned (the hard way) that card-stock paper is much more difficult to fold and play your origami tricks on :)

After printing your paper sheets with the pentagon shapes, cut each pentagon using your scissors, removing all the black borders.

I made quite a few stars, as you can see :) You can start with one, to see how it goes or you can work in large batches, like I did.

Did I mentioned that after you have your pentagon shapes cut and ready for action, you won’t need anything else? No glue, no nothing, just your origami skills put to work! Pretty amazing, right?

I initially wanted to give you the full instructions on how to make your own {origami} French paper stars, but the guys from Homemade Gifts Made Easy did such an amazing job with their step by step instructions and the video below, I feel like there is nothing more to say :) Just follow the instructions in their video and you’ll be amazed by how easy this is.

These were my first pretty amazing French paper stars! I loved them!

And the fact that there are so many possibilities is pretty awesome!

You can hang the {origami} French paper stars as ornaments in your Christmas tree, by your window or fireplace.

You can sew several of them into a beautiful Christmas garland and hang around your home or you can use them as ornaments for your Christmas presents. You can even glue some of them on a painted piece of wood and create an original 3D Christmas tree sign, just be bold and put your imagination to work! :)

If you would like to make the paper stars with things that you have in your home, you can also use wrapping paper, newspapers, scrapbook paper, old book pages or old music sheets (if you are going for a vintage look), or any other paper with some pretty design/writing on it, white or colorful. Just remember, you need one pentagon shape to make a beautiful paper star!

The {origami} French paper stars are the perfect match for my white Christmas globes, don’t you think? I painted the globes with acrylic paint and faux distressed them a few years ago, then decorated them with stripes of French scripts, using waterslide decal paper (see more about them here).

\\\ Don’t forget to pin for later ///

On a more personal note, I feel that the last couple of weeks have been a little bit overwhelming with all the things that have been going on. It all started with the tragic accident that happened in a club in Bucharest, Romania (my country) at a rock concert, where a horrifying fire led to the death of 56 young people. They were there to listen to their favorite band but when the fire started, because the underground location that hosted the concert didn’t have a proper fire safety and emergency evacuation system, the whole place just turned into a furnace and lots of them tragically lost their lives that night (and some of them the next days/weeks). It was painful just to hear the testimonies of those who survived … it is something hard to describe in words… And then, when the horrid attacks from Paris were all over the news announcing all those people that were brutally killed … it was a little bit too much.

I didn’t feel like doing much for a few days, these kind of events tend to make you think about how fragile life is, make you (re)analyze things and even see them in a new perspective. And yes, eventually life goes on, it has to … with all the good and the bad, the happiness and sadness… The best we can do is to be thankful for our lives and the people in our lives …  and maybe try harder to do our part in making this world a safer, a prettier, a happier … a better place.

That’s all for today! Hope you like my stars and decide to make some of these beauties for Christmas. If you have any questions or just want to share your lovely French stars (or your thoughts), feel free to leave a comment below.

Don’t forget to smile,

Diana

If you make some projects inspired by any of my posts, please use them for personal use only. And don’t forget, on Instagram you can hashtag them using #bydreamsfactory or tag me using @bydreamsfactory. Have fun! :)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links so you can easily find the products I love. See more of my favorites {HERE}. 

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