Folded Star

From a square sheet of paper, you can make a folded star. The star pictured is made from one sheet of 32 lb. paper and a piece of aluminum foil that is slightly larger than the paper.

Homemade Foil-backed Paper for the Folded Star:
1. For this folder star, get one sheet of paper and one sheet of aluminum foil that is at least 9.5 inches long.
2. Cut the paper to square - this makes the paper around 8.5x8.5 inches long if using printer paper.
3. Glue the dull side of the foil to the paper. I used *rubber cement.

* If you use rubber cement, please read the warning label first.

Materials

Foil-backed paper (wrapping paper or homemade, see above)
Scissors
Ruler to make the paper square (or use fold techniques to make the square)
Ribbon
Glue

Step One

If you haven't already, cut the paper into a square. A square that is 8.5 " x 8.5 " will yield a star that measures 8.5" x 7".

Find the center of the paper. If you want this to be educational, have your children find the center. It can be done several ways, here are two of the ways.

1. Fold the paper in half both ways (either side to side or corner to corner). The place where the lines intersect is the center.

2. Lay a ruler from corner to corner and make a very pale line at around the center area. Lay the ruler across the other two corners (corner to corner) and draw a faint line that intersects the first faint line. Where these two lines cross is the center.

Step Two

Fold the paper.

Bring each corner of the square sheet of paper to the middle of the square and fold the paper.

Press each fold well.

Step Three

Fold the paper in half from left to right.

Press the fold well.

Unfold what you just did.

This makes a "prefold" that makes Step 5 easier.

Step Four

Fold the paper in half from top to bottom.

Press the fold well.

Step Five

Holding the corners near the bottom, push in the direction of the arrows so that the paper forms a small square.

Step Six

Fold the flaps firmly, then open the flaps and fold the other flaps firmly.

Step Seven

Fold the flaps up toward the middle of the square.

Step Eight

Turn the paper over and fold the other two flaps up in the same manner.

Step Nine

Fold the top down, press firmly.

Step Ten

Open the three flaps that were just folded.

Step Eleven

Hold the bottom corner and gently pull the corner on the other side up.

Step Twelve

The flaps that were previously folded in one direction will now need to be folded in the other direction so that the star will lay flat as shown in the photograph.