Good morning! Well, I missed May’s Christmas 2 Challenge project, but June’s Christmas 2 project does double duty,just like the Eternal Christmas decoration! Red and white twig stars will be Christmas porch decorations, but I also painted a few blue stars. Now, I can use them for 4th of July decorations, too!
Ever since finishing the spindles, I’ve wanted more Christmas decorations for the porch! So, I’m making Painted Twig Stars.
I like the look of hanging single ornaments, but I was afraid they would break in the winter wind.
I also love garland, bows and lights, but with a Santa and a light pole blow mold decoration on the porch and the nativity nearby, I don’t need more lights.
I would also like to not use more electricity.
Painted Twig Stars will be perfect- not breakable, festive and colorful, no electricity and frugal. They were even easy to make!
Thanks to being brave (again!), we have logs for the camp fire or maple syrup time and a large brush pile. We cleaned up a dead tree, and now I have plenty of sticks to choose from.
Only one of the brush piles I picked from-made piles of 5 similar sticks 
Set out the stars so stick thicknesses were the same 
Left a 4 inch tail, to tie with later 
Just wrapped each point, and then tied in a knot
For the large stars, I used 5- 12 inch long twigs. The smaller star used 8 inch long ones. I tried to use straight twigs that were all about the same thickness.
Since I was making them outside, I didn’t use a hot glue gun to attach the twigs together.
First, I laid out the star shape. Then as I held the twigs, at about the correct angle, I wrapped twine around the point.
I left a 4 inch long tail when I started wrapping, so I could knot the twine together when I was done.
Each point was wrapped tightly, but there was still enough give to adjust the star(and make it look like a star again) when I wrapped the last point.
It’s hard to see, but there is a small knot at each inside intersection also.
When I was done tying the stars, I hung them on the porch. It was hard to see them, so I decided to paint the stars.
There are red and white stars for Christmas. I also made a few blue ones, so I could use them for the 4th of July too.
Painting the stars was easy with a large brush, though it was a messy outside job for me.
Natural twig stars 
Fun, festive twig stars!
Hanging them was also easy. I left a large loop for the stars to fit through as the twine goes over the spindle railing. No nails or hooks!!
The colorful twig stars were an easy afternoon project. I like them for a festive, frugal 4th of July decoration, but I’m not sure how they will look with Santa in December.
Guess I’ll have to wait and see, since I’m sure no one would be happy if I got Santa out in July! Hope you all enjoy the weekend and the holiday!
Happy Camping ( or maybe finding Santa!)
Frugal Campasaurus