diy paint stick barn star!

i really wanted to hang a red wooden barn star on our plain white front door this year. i'd seen some at an antiques fair/open house thing i went to on my birthday, but just couldn't justify $30 bucks for one. when i got home and couldn't stop thinking about them, i went scrounging in my craft room to see if i had anything that could work. lo & behold, my good friend the simple paint stirrer came to my rescue!

-what you need: 10 paint stir sticks, red craft paint, hot glue & large silvery thumbtacks [optional]

-i started as always by cutting off the curvy part of the stir sticks & sanding the cut edge [i use a little handsaw to score both sides & then it snaps right off!]

 -give all your star 'legs' a swipe of red craft paint. i just painted right over the orange home depot printed side!

 -lay out your star 'legs' into a star shape on the floor

-hot glue each of the 2 'leg' sections to make the 5 pointy sections to make the star. cut the pointy part off of your thumbtacks with strong wire cutters & glue them on top of each connection spot.

 -repeat for all 5 sections of the star. if you don't like the way the star shape is turning out, you can gently pop the glued parts apart & reposition.

 ta da! you have a barn star! i love the way it turned out, but i do think i'm going to pop mine apart a little bit & readjust- it turned out a little wonky & looked much better the way i originally laid it out on the floor. just needs a little tweaking!

i put a large plastic snowflake hanging behind it on our front door & i absolutely love how it looks! it adds so much color & festive to our front door!