Craft Project: Skewer Star Tree Topper

Every time I opened my extra utensil drawer there was this bag of wooden skewers in the way so I decided to do something with them. I added some fuzzy yarn, a tongue depressor, a cardboard tube, and hot glue and ended up with a delicate, fuzzy, tree topper.

Approximate Time: 1 hour

Supplies:

• 4 wooden skewers
• fuzzy yarn
• cardboard tube
• Christmas paper
• hot glue
• 1 tongue depressor
• scissors
• acrylic paint optional

Instructions:

1. Wrap your cardboard tube with foil wrapping paper or aluminum foil.
2. Glue 2 inches of one end of your tongue depressor inside the tube. You will need to remove the paper where your depressor will be glued down.
3. You could paint the skewers first as I did, I painted mine pearl, all it did was to tone down the wood color. A pretty soft blue would be very pretty I would think.
4. After your paint dries, find and mark the center of all of your skewers.
5. Make an x out of two skewers and put a drop of hot glue on the mark. Match the marks and hold until they are secure.
6. Take another skewer and center in the big gap, glue in place with ample glue. Add another skewer and glue in in place.
7. Go back and put plenty of hot glue around this joint to make them hold securely without wiggling.
8. Put one end of your yarn in this glue then start wrapping over and under the skewers until you have filled in the center as far as you want; I did about 1 1/2".

9. Then wrap around one skewer and go to the previous one and wrap up to the point. Put a drop of glue on your yarn at the tip and wrap back down.

10. Wrap your yarn around a skewer to secure it and repeat up to the tip again, repeating this pattern until you have them all wrapped.
11. Wrap your yarn down the depressor and glue it to hold.
12. Hot glue the bottom couple of inches inside your cardboard tube.

Now you have a pretty tree topper.

By Ann from Loup City, NE

About The Author: Ann is half of a creative team on a craft oriented website. Here you will find pages of free projects and patterns in a wide variety of categories, with an entire section made especially for kids. There also is a gift shop where you can purchase unique handmade items such as collectible dolls, toys, and home decor. They offer free sayings, tips, ideas, and humor. Enter their contests for a chance to win great prizes. Visit them at: craftingtales.com