Paper Star Template

How to make each paper star

3D star from the printed net

1. Pick 5, 6, 7 or 8 points and type the size. The size is the diameter of the circle through the tips. The finished star is 0.3 times that thick, so a 12 cm star stands 3.6 cm deep. Stars up to 10 cm fit all four pieces on one sheet; bigger ones spread over two or four pages, and the largest that fits is 32 cm for five points on A4 (26 cm for eight, 25 cm on Letter).
2. Print at 100 % (“Actual size”) on 160 to 220 g/m² card (60 to 80 lb cover). Check the black bar in the corner: it is 50 mm on A4 and 2 in on Letter.
3. Score, then cut. Run an empty ballpoint pen along a ruler on every dashed line before you cut, so the card folds crisply, then cut on the solid outline.
4. Fold. Dash-dot lines run from the centre to a tip: fold them up (mountain, the ridge towards you). Dashed lines run to an inner corner: fold them down (valley). Fold every glue tab back.
5. Close each half. A half is two pieces because a star with six or more points needs more than a full circle of paper around its centre (374° for eight points), so no single flat piece can make it, and a five-point half needs 359.6°, which leaves no room for a closing tab. Glue the tab on piece 1 under the matching edge of piece 2, then the second tab, and the half becomes a shallow star-shaped dome.
6. Join the halves. Half A carries a tab on every rim edge. Glue half B onto them one point at a time, tips matched, and close the last point by pressing the tabs from outside. A needle and thread through the hole mark near one tip hangs it.

Woven strip star (Froebel star)

The four strips are cut to a width to length ratio of 1 : 30, which leaves enough length to weave the 16 points without the ends running out: 15 mm strips are 45 cm long. That is longer than any home printer's paper, so a strip prints in two or more parts; glue each part onto the grey overlap of the one before with a glue stick and let it dry flat. Fold each strip in half at the dashed mark, hook the four folded strips into each other to make a tight square, then follow the step page. Use thin paper (80 to 100 g/m²): card will not weave. The back of a printed strip is white and shows on some points, so either print the pages twice on both sides or choose colour-in and colour both faces.

Paper-bag star

You need 7 flat-bottomed paper bags (lunch bags or bakery bags) all the same size. Type the bag's flat width and length and its bottom-flap height, print the template and cut it out. Glue each bag to the next with a T: a line down the middle and a line across the bottom flap. With the stack glued and dry, lay the template on the open end, trace it, and cut through all seven bags at once with sharp scissors; cut the windows with a craft knife on a cutting mat. Every cut on the template stays at least 3 mm above the flap's fold, and every window stays 3 mm clear of the side folds and of the glue line, so the stack still holds together. Fan it open all the way round and glue the first bag to the last.

Paper star garland

Pick Garland, then flat, 3D or 3D + lights, and type the star size, the length of the garland and the gap you want between two stars. The planner puts a star centre at the start of the length and then one every star size + gap, so the count is floor(length ÷ (size + gap)) + 1. For 2.5 m of 8 cm stars with 5 cm gaps that is a star every 13 cm: 19 steps, 20 stars. Six flat 8 cm stars fit on one A4 or Letter sheet, so the PDF has 4 sheets. It prints exactly those stars, then a plan page and a page of steps. The plan page draws the garland to scale, one metre a row, and has a true-size spacing gauge for marking the string. Cut the string 50 cm longer than the garland, so you have 25 cm at each end to tie.

• Flat stars to thread or sew, 4 to 12 cm. Print both sides puts each back on the next page, at the place where it lands when the sheet turns over on its long edge, so print double-sided with “flip on long edge”. Home printers often shift the back by a millimetre or so, so the back is printed at least 1.5 mm bigger all round and no white rim shows after you cut along the front line. Fold-over pair is for single-sided printing. It prints each star with its mirror image, joined at the top point by a 4 mm bridge: fold the bridge, lay the string in the fold and glue the two stars together. String them through a 3 mm hole near the top point. For a sewing machine, choose the stitch line instead: it runs down the centre of each star. Use a stitch length of 3 to 4 mm on 120 to 160 g/m² paper, and sew a few centimetres of plain stitches between stars. Sewn stars hang as a vertical strand.
• 3D stars on a string, 5 to 12 cm. This is the net of the 3D star above, with a hole near the top point of A1 and of B1, so the string goes straight through the point. A holed hanging tab glues into that point if you would rather tie the stars on. On A4, six 5 cm stars or four 6 cm stars fit on a sheet, and two 8 cm stars. A 10 cm star needs a sheet to itself, and a 12 cm star needs two.
• 3D + lights, 6 to 12 cm. Each star has the domed front and a flat back with a 12 mm hole in its centre for one bulb, about the size of the bulb and its holder on a typical LED fairy-light string. A flat back fits because the rim of the 3D star is a flat star outline with exactly the same edge lengths. The hole's edge stays at least 6 mm from every fold, so the glue tabs still hold, and that is why lit stars start at 6 cm. Push a bulb in from behind and tape the wire to the back. Battery fairy lights only, never mains, never a candle. A battery string of LEDs runs at 3 to 4.5 V and barely warms up, but the paper sits right on the bulb, so switch it off when nobody is in the room.

The Mixed design runs through eight of the page's own looks in turn: red gingham, gold stars, blue snowflakes, green stripes, kraft dots, snow white, plain red and plain gold. Pick one of them for a garland in a single look, or My look below to use your own colour, pattern or colour-in outlines.

Lucky stars with messages

Type one message per line and each one is printed along its own strip (10 × 240 mm by default, a ratio of 1 : 24). Tie a loose knot at the end without words, flatten it into a pentagon, wrap the rest of the strip around it, tuck the tail in and push each edge in with a fingernail until it puffs up. The message ends up wrapped inside, to be unfolded later. Without any messages typed, the strips print blank to write on by hand; the examples in the preview never print.

Questions

Is this paper star template free to print as a PDF?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no paid version. The PDF has the template pages and a last page of step drawings for the kind of star you chose; the PNG is the same page at 300 dpi. Every line sits at least 6 mm in from the paper edge, which home printers do not clip.

How do I make a 3D paper star ornament?

Choose the 3D star at 8 to 10 cm on 160 g/m² card, keep “Hanging-hole mark” on, and glue the halves as above. Before you close the last point, push a needle with 25 cm of thread through the marked hole from the inside and knot it, so the knot sits inside the star. A five-point star of 10 cm weighs a few grams and hangs straight from a branch. For a string of them, choose Garland and 3D: every star gets a hole through its top point, and the planner tells you how many stars and sheets your length takes.

Is this an origami star template?

Not strictly: origami folds one uncut square. The woven Froebel star and the lucky stars come closest, since they are folded from strips with no glue in the finished star (the Froebel strips only need glue to join printed parts). The 3D star is a cut-and-glue model. If you want a pattern on the paper, this page prints it on the strips and the net in your colour.

What paper star pattern can I print?

Each kind of star comes as plain colour, as one of five patterns of our own (dots, stripes, little stars, gingham and snowflakes), or as colour-in outlines for children, where the pattern prints as grey lines to colour. The 3D star prints every other face a little darker, as light falls on the finished star, so it looks raised even on plain paper.

Can I cut the 3D star with a Cricut or Silhouette?

Yes. The SVG cut file has the cut lines in red in a group called “cut” and the fold lines in blue in “score”, at true size in millimetres. The DXF holds the same lines on layers CUT and SCORE for Silhouette Studio's free Basic Edition, which opens DXF but not SVG. The pieces sit where they print, pages side by side, so you can also print first and cut with registration by hand.

How many paper bags do I need for a paper-bag star?

Seven, all of one size and stacked with the flaps on the same side. Seven is the count most bag-star instructions use for lunch-size bags, and the template is labelled for it; a stack of 8 or 9 works with the same template but is harder to cut cleanly with scissors, because every bag adds two layers.

More Christmas things to make: the paper ornament maker for flat ornaments to hang beside your stars, the paper snowflake maker for the window, and the gift box template for a box to put the lucky stars in.