Altered Metal Star

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Reported By Amy Westerman

About a year ago, I was browsing the Two Peas website for ideas, like we all do from time to time. I was so excited when I ran across the picture of an altered metal star by Two Peas Garden Girl Sande Krieger. It was beautiful, and believe it or not, it looked like a fairly easy project to tackle!

It took me a while to find a star that I could alter. I ended up finding one at Kirkland’s Home, a home store here in Minneapolis. It measured about 18 inches, tip to tip, and cost only $9.99. Unfortunately, it sat around my stamp studio a few weeks before I decided what designer paper to cover it with. When the new spring line of Basic Grey papers were released, I knew the Phoebe line would be PERFECT for my star! I couldn’t wait to get started.

Designer Sande Krieger outlines in perfect detail on Two Peas how to complete this project, so I will not go into detail in this article. This is the link directly to the Altered Star instructions! The basic supplies needed are, of course, the star, as well as glue, tracing paper, and dark brown ink. Sande also used a sealer to cover the paper once it had been adhered to the star, but I did not do this step with mine. She recommended using Crafters Pick-The Ultimate Glue to adhere the paper, but I used Mono Metal Liquid Glue instead and it worked just fine.



There are just a few steps to creating this special star and I’ll quickly outline them here, but be sure and click on the link above for more detailed instructions!

First, lay the tracing paper over one of the star points and trace it with a pencil. Next, cut out the pattern and then trace around it on the backside of a piece of designer paper. When you cut it out, make sure you cut about a ½ inch larger than the pattern to allow for folding under.

Next, apply your glue to the backside of the designer paper. I spread my glue around with the tip of the bottle, but Sande recommends using a foam brush, which is a great idea. It gets messy at this point, so a foam brush might keep things a little neater! When you’ve glued up the backside really well, flip the paper right side up and adhere it to the star tip. You want to make sure it overlaps all edges so the paper can be adhered to the back of the star. I used my Pampered Chef little brown scraper to smooth the paper down onto the star, which worked amazing. Sande used her bone folder, which is another great option!

Once you’ve smoothed down the paper onto the front of the star, flip it over and adhere the flaps to the backside of the star. You might need some extra glue to accomplish this. I used my little brown scraper to smooth down the edges on the back as well, which was a good idea, as sometimes these flaps liked to come unglued at times! Just use more glue and more force to keep them down if necessary!

I followed this same routine for all the star points. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll have the star finished in no time! When I finished all the points, I took my brown stamp pad (I used my ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink pad in Chestnut Roan) and rubbed it all over the star, most notably along the edges. Feel free to do this as much as you like! I think the more distressed, the better.

I had so much fun making my altered star! In fact, I liked doing it so much I made another one last weekend for my sister-in-law’s new kitchen. I hope you get inspired to try one of these stars for yourself sometime soon!