Easy DIY stars made from toilet paper rolls
I love working with common materials that we all have in our house already and that are free. I have a huge bag full of tp rolls and love using them for different projects. Today I want to show you how I made super easy toilet paper roll stars and how I put my own spin on them since this is by no means a newly invented craft project. This is a great tutorial to do with kids just use craft glue instead of hot glue.
Easy DIY stars made from toilet paper rolls
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This year I definitely had a color scheme/theme going on in my Christmas decor again. A lot of the decor was matched to my favorite velvet pillows which are a tan burnt orange (on the website they are called light brown but I disagree). I have them in our living room and dining room.
When I started to decorate for this year, I decided to repaint some of my cheap plastic ball ornaments with the baking soda paint again as I did in my DIY painted Christmas ornaments tutorial. I mixed a paint color to match my pillows which is a slightly darker terracotta paint color. You can see them below. I topped them with jute yarn the same way I did with my faux Mexican Christmas ornaments.
I had a lot of the mixed paint color left and used it for the caps in my mushroom Christmas ornaments tutorial. And for today’s tutorial, I used the rest of that paint. The stars look so pretty painted. My neighbor came over while I was working on them and she asked if the stars were made from leather. I agree in person they look just like leather. Of course, you can keep them in the plain cardboard color as well. To some of them, I added the leftover white puff paint that I used in my DIY gingerbread ornaments made from cardboard from last year.
Below you can see a grouping with some of the mentioned DIY ornaments.
RELATED: I also made toilet paper roll snowflakes which are a little bit more work than today’s stars but also easy to make.
Craft supply list needed to make toilet paper roll stars
- toilet paper rolls (paper towel rolls or any other cardboard rolls work too)
- hot glue and hot glue gun (craft glue works too)
- large scissors
- small craft scissors (I just bought those and love them)
- ruler and pencil (optional)
- ribbon or twine
- wooden beads, glitter, Sharpie, and puff paint are optional for decorating
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-by-step instructions
I’m showing you first how to make a plain undecorated toilet paper roll star in case you want to keep your stars plain or decorate them afterward.
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 4: Cut out the tips of the toilet paper roll strips
Use small sharp craft scissors to cut small V-shapes out of the tips of the toilet paper roll strips. Make sure that you don’t go all the way to the edge of the strip on both sides or the entire strip will fall apart.
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.
Photos of finished toilet paper roll stars
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…
I still have so many more little projects I want to share but not enough time. Let’s see what I get done!
Happy Holidays and crafting,
How to make toilet paper roll stars
I'm showing you how to make easy and free toilet paper roll stars that I painted to give them a chic velvet or leather look for the holidays.
Materials
- toilet paper rolls (paper towel rolls or any other cardboard rolls work too)
- hot glue (craft glue works too)
- ribbon or twine
- wooden beads, glitter, Sharpie, and puff paint are optional for decorating
Tools
- hot glue gun
- large scissors
- small craft scissors
- ruler and pencil (optional)
Instructions
- 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)
- 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. - Use a sharp large pair of scissors to cut even toilet roll pieces of toilet paper or paper towel rolls.
- Use small sharp craft scissors to cut small V-shapes out of the tips of the toilet paper roll strips. Make sure that you don't go all the way to the edge of the strip on both sides or the entire strip will fall apart.
- 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)
Notes
You can dress up the toilet paper roll stars by painting them, adding faux leather stitching with Sharpie, decorating them with puff paint for a gingerbread detail, adding wooden beads to the hanging twine, brushing on glue and dipping them in glitter, or turning them into gift tags and gift toppers.
You always come up with great fun ideas. Do you have a pickle ornament on your tree?
We also really enjoy our German decorative pieces such as the pyramid, the Angel and Miner, nutcrackers, smokers and various collections as well as Christmas linens.
It brings a touch of my German history to our home.
Wishing you and your family a joyous Christmas.
Hi Susan, no we actually never had a pickle ornament, not even as kids in Germany but I believe my uncle did. Love my German Christmas pieces too. And thanks so much. Merry Christmas to you and yours too.
Hello, I’ve made loads of these stars but I want to turn them into garlands instead of ornaments. Any suggestions for how to do that without all the stars sliding together?
I would tie or glue them to a ribbon individually