My walls have looked rather plain since my husband and I moved in a few months back, so I decided I would make some awesome decorations to go up on the walls. I used to make these all the time back when I was in grade school, and they look REALLY awesome!

I always get compliments on my star, people asking where I got it and such. They are so surprised when I tell them I made it.

and it is SO EASY.

What You Will Need:

Cardboard or Foamboard
Marker / Paint (if desired)
Embroidery Floss or Other String (the gradient color-changing ones look best for this, but I didn't have any.)
Needle
Ruler
Pencil

Step 1: Choose Your Backing!

I chose cardboard because it was what I had on hand. You can also use foamboard for a more polished look!

If you don't want the yucky-brown of the cardboard to be the background, color with markers (like me!) or you can paint it.

Step 2: Make a Grid

Flip it over to the side you want to be the back. As you can see, I didn't color the back of mine, but you can if you want!

Take your ruler and make two lines crossing each other at the middle of your cardboard.

Mark every 1/4" down each one of the lines, starting from the center, and make sure you have an equal number of marks on each line.

You'll get something that looks like an x-y plane plotty thing from math class.

Take your needle and poke a hole where each mark is.

Step 3: Start Stringing It!

Depending on how big your star is, you'll want different amounts of string. Mine was about 6 inches tall / wide, and I used about 20 ft of string.

Get a LARGE amount of string and thread your needle, making sure you tie a large knot in one end. These things take up more than you realize and running out of string in the middle is a big pain in the butt, so more is better!

Start from the back, and poke your needle through the outermost hole of one of the cross section lines. Pull it through a bit, then poke your needle through the hole closest to the center of the next cross section line.

Pull ALL of your string through so that the line is tight (but not too tight, or you'll tear the cardboard!)

Step 4: And Stringing It...

Thread your needle up through the next hole over, and poke it through the next hole right below the one you started at.

Repeat this process all the way down. Each hole will be connected with string to the opposite hole on the next side.

An easy example is if you had 10 holes on each of the four sides, and numbered them from 1 to 10 with 1 being closest to the center.

Hole 1 on side A would go to Hole 10 on side B
Hole 2 on side A would go to Hole 9 on side B
Hole 3 on side A would go to Hole 8 on side B
Hole 4 on side A would go to Hole 7 on side B
Hole 5 on side A would go to Hole 6 on side B
Hole 6 on side A would go to Hole 5 on side B
Hole 7 on side A would go to Hole 4 on side B
Hole 8 on side A would go to Hole 3 on side B
Hole 9 on side A would go to Hole 2 on side B
Hole 10 on side A would go to Hole 1 on side B

Step 5: Repeat for Each Section

Once you've finished one side, you'll have ended back up at the top hole again! Perfect placement to start on the next section.

Repeat for all 4 sections

Step 6: Voila! Beautiful Beautiful Art!

Now you have your very own EPIC STRING STAR!

You may now bask in the awesome proudness that will overcome you every time you say to your friends "Oh that ole thing? I made it myself!"

You can make this with more than 2 lines, and experiment with the different shapes you can make. It is seriously addictive, once you start you just can't stop!