DIY Wooden Stars
Create these beautiful wooden stars using simple materials to upgrade your home decor! When you’re done, checkout 21 craft ideas with clothespins. This post contains affiliate links.
It’s decor time! Using simple, inexpensive supplies, you can put together these impressive-looking stars in about 30 minutes. They can complement just about any decor style – I love the wood-stain look for a rustic country or farmhouse aesthetic, but you can also paint them to go with some other mood or theme.
Once completed, these 3-D stars are a great size for displaying on a tiered tray (see other tiered tray ideas here). They can also be interesting desk accessories or shelf accents. And they’re so cheap and simple to make, there’s no need to worry if you have guests or kids over who tend to handle your knicknacks.
This craft is good for adults or for older kids who are developing greater coordination and are ready to move on to more original forms of 3-D art. The instructions require using hot glue and holding pieces in specific positions until set – even if you use wood glue instead of hot glue, the process will require more patience than most younger children have.
What you need
- Full size clothespins for a large star, wooden spring-style (18 per star)
- Medium size clothespins for a smaller star, wooden spring-style (18 per star)
- Acrylic craft paint or stain – dark brown or another color of your choice
- Glue gun and glue sticks (you can also use wood glue, but will need to wait for it to dry at each step)
- Paintbrush
- Paper towels or baby wipes (optional)
How to make DIY Wooden Stars
1. Remove the metal springs from 18 full-sized and 18 smaller wooden clothespins.
2. Glue together the flat sides of each clothespin. If you’ve used liquid wood glue, wait for it to dry. If using a glue gun, don’t over-apply glue, and make sure to press the sides flat against each other so there isn’t extra bulk.
3. Take 8 of the full-sized clothespins and arrange them on your work surface in a star pattern, with the narrower ends pointing outward. Glue them together where they touch each other near the center of the star.
4. Take 4 more full-sized clothespins. Glue them in every other blank space between the first star points, with the narrow ends pointing upward. Use a decent amount of glue and hold each piece in place until it sets. Then attach a 5th clothespin in the center, sticking straight up.
5. Turn the craft upside-down and repeat the above steps, attaching four clothespins in every other blank space and a fifth one standing up in the center. The craft may be wobbly at this stage because of the points already glued on bottom, so you can place it in a wide-mouthed jar or can to help you stabilize it while gluing on the new pieces. Repeat the above steps to complete a 3-D Star using the medium-sized wooden clothespins.
5. Mix dark brown acrylic craft paint with some water on a plate to create a “stain”. Paint the 3-D Star with the watered down paint mixture, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies – you can do this roughly and quickly as it is not detailed work. This will give the unfinished wooden clothespins a stained effect without having to use wood stain, which can get messy and smelly.
You can either leave the 3-D Star dark brown or wipe off some of the excess paint with a wet paper towel or baby wipe before it dries completely for more of a wood-stain look. Set aside to allow the paint to dry completely.
Enjoy your DIY wooden stars!
DIY Clothespin Star Decor
Materials
- Full size clothespins, wooden spring-style
- Medium size clothespins, wooden spring-style
- Acrylic craft paint – dark brown or another color of your choice
- Glue gun and glue sticks (you can also use wood glue, but will need to wait for it to dry at each step)
- Paintbrush
- Paper towels or baby wipes (optional)
Instructions
1. Remove the metal springs from 18 full-sized and 18 smaller wooden clothespins.
Glue together the flat sides of each clothespin. If you’ve used liquid wood glue, wait for it to dry.
2. Take 8 of the full-sized clothespins and arrange them on your work surface in a star pattern, with the narrower ends pointing outward. Glue them together where they touch each other near the center of the star.
3. Take 4 more full-sized clothespins. Glue them in every other blank space between the first star points, with the narrow ends pointing upward. Use a generous amount of glue and hold each piece in place until it sets. Then attach a 5th clothespin in the center, sticking straight up.
4. Turn the craft upside-down and repeat the above steps, attaching four clothespins in every other blank space and a fifth one standing up in the center. The craft may be wobbly at this stage because of the points already glued on bottom, so you can place it in a wide-mouthed jar or can to help you stabilize it while gluing on the new pieces.
Repeat the above steps to complete a 3-D Star using the medium-sized wooden clothespins.
5. Mix dark brown acrylic craft paint with some water on a plate. Paint the 3-D Star with the watered down paint mixture, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies - you can do this roughly and quickly as it is not detailed work. This will give the unfinished wooden clothespins a stained effect without having to use wood stain, which can get messy and smelly.
You can either leave the 3-D Star dark brown or wipe off some of the excess paint with a wet paper towel or baby wipe before it dries completely for more of a wood-stain look. Set aside to allow the paint to dry completely.
