Custom size Christmas Star (for outdoors)

My mother lost her outdoor Christmas star due to moving and I thought to myself I have all the materials I would need to make one, so why not give it a try.

The idea is to make a custom sized star to fit your or my application. If you are lucky and have all the materials laying around then you can save money too.

Here is a look at what we will be making.

Step 1: Determine your size.

The best part about what I am going to tell you is that you will be able to basically make any size star with these instructions. I originally wanted to make a 3' star to put on the chimney, but my family talked my into this smaller one.

So the first thing to do is determine where you would like your star to go. Next measure to find the approximate width of your star. Note the height of the star will be slightly less than the width. In the diagram below we just measured the line AC we will use that to find the length of the arms of the star (AF).
Note: Once the lights are added to the frame the width of the star will be greater then just the frame. To avoid making the finished star to large decrease your width (AC) by 1-1.5 inches.

The length of your arms (AF) will be approximately 38% of your width (AC). Once you do your calculation round the number to something nice (measurable).

Here's are the numbers for my star:
The width of my star can be 27". I multiply 27 by 38% or 0.38. The length I come up with is 10.26 inches. I round this down to 10.25". Nice and measurable!

Comments

[kcli]

Very nice job and I bet it looks great from the street!

[gonzolo]

It looks good at a distance. I could have done a better job positioning the bulbs to be parallel to the sides of the star, but I plan on changing the lights out with tube lights for next year. My whole original idea was to use what I had around the house and not have to buy anything.