Easy DIY stars made from toilet paper rolls

Toilet paper roll stars video tutorial

As always, I’m including a video tutorial for you which you can also watch on my YouTube channel. A lot of times it’s just easier to see what the hands are doing instead of reading about it.

Step 1: Flatten the toilet paper roll

You can use your hands or I used the handle of my scissors to flatten the toilet paper tubes (works with paper towel rolls as well)

Step 2: Mark even sections on your rolls

You can skip this step if you are confident that you can eyeball the toilet paper roll strip cuts in the next step. I think the stars look nicer though if the strips are equally the same size.

I used a ruler and pencil to park 0.75-inch strips on the rolls.

Step 3: Cut the toilet paper roll strips

Use a sharp large pair of scissors to cut even toilet roll pieces of toilet paper or paper towel rolls.

Step 5: Stack and glue the toilet paper roll strips into a star shape

You need three strips of toilet paper roll for one star. Take one of those strips and add hot glue to the outside center on both sides. (if you are doing this project with children, use craft glue instead of hot glue)

Take that strip with the glue and insert it into the second strip of toilet paper roll so the centers meet.

When you press the two strips together (which should look like a slightly smooshed X), make sure you leave room for the third strip of toilet paper roll.

Now add a dot of glue to the center of the two glued-together strips on both sides.

And then slide them into the third strip of toilet paper roll.

If you did this all rather quickly, you should be still able to adjust the strips to get an even star shape before the hot glue cools off. (you have more time with craft glue)

Here is the finished toilet paper roll star.

Different ways to dress up the toilet paper roll stars

Now that we got the basic construction of the stars out of the way, let me show you what I did to make them match my decor. I mentioned in the beginning that I painted them and they ended up looking like leather (seeing them next to my pillow, I think they look more like velvet). I mixed a burnt orange or rust color with craft paint and added some baking soda to the mix for added texture.

Painting the toilet paper rolls

I flattened and then painted my cardboard tubes ahead of making the stars. It is preferential but I just like the look better and it’s easier that way too than painting every star individually.

Let the rolls dry and then construct your star the same way as I mentioned in the above steps.

Here is a painted star versus a plain toilet paper roll star. Unfortunately, the texture isn’t all that noticeable in the photos.

Paint on faux leather stitching

You can even add faux stitching to the stars to make them look like stitched leather. I tried a white and brown Sharpie for that. Simply add small lines to the outside perimeter.

Decorating the toilet paper roll stars with puff paint

I am obsessed with puff paint and how white puff paint looks like sugar icing. You can doodle all kinds of patterns onto your stars. I kept it simple with some dotted designs which is super easy as you can tell in my video tutorial.

Adding wood beads to the top of the star

You can add some wooden beads to the twine of ribbon that you use for hanging.

Dip the stars in glitter

If you are a fan of glitter, you can brush the stars with craft glue and dip them in glitter to match your holiday decor.

Turn them into a gift tag

I used the same white Sharpie that I used earlier to turn them into gift tags by painting one of the strips like a banner and adding a name to the center.

I used them all over my house for my Christmas decorations and my gifts. However, the main reason that I wanted to make these super lightweight ornaments is our basement family room tree which has family photo ornaments on it that are heavy and drag down the branches. I needed ornaments that barely weigh anything and the toilet paper roll stars are perfect.

I never really share our basement anymore because it is so dark down there and hard to photograph. But let me show you.

We have a Christmas family photo since the year we got married. We’ve been married for 25 years so there are a lot of them. I usually buy the annual Pottery Barn frame ornament but sometimes they are sold out so fast that I didn’t get one. This year is one of those years and now I have to find one somewhere else.

Walter wanted his photo taken too. He has fake snow on his head.

The stars don’t need string for hanging and I like to just stick the star ornaments on the branches. Here I have them in front of each battery-operated clip-on candle. (You can see the plastic ball ornament that I painted in the same color and texture with the orange ribbon.)

And here are more photos of the rest of our home decked out for Christmas this year in case you missed it. You can see that it all flows well together.

Our new live tabletop Christmas tree is decorated the same way as the other sparse artificial Christmas tree.

And across from that is our fireplace area with my new doily snowflakes.

The mushroom ornaments ended up in our dining room along with the old brown bag snowflakes that now have paper bag snowflake patterns in white puff paint as well. I love that added detail. Check out the tutorial for more info.

And here they are as different gift toppers…

Happy Holidays and crafting,