Beneath Paper Stars

I love stars. I also have a lot of origami paper leftover from my youth. Obviously, this tutorial appealed to me.


A gift for my niece for her 13th birthday. She was quite thrilled with it, I'm told.

I very rarely purchase gifts for anyone. Honestly, I usually can't. We don't have the money to. And while crafting isn't free, it's possible to take inexpensive materials and turn them into something impressive. This particular project cost me $1.40 for the large hoop, $0.89 for the small ring at the top, and $1.40 for a hank of pearl floss. That's a total of $3.87 including tax. You could break it down further because I didn't use anywhere near all the floss...so that will live on to be included in another project. The paper was all stuff I already had from years ago. It was most likely given to me anyway. I also used some clear tape and hot glue...again stuff I already had. What can $3.87 buy you already made? Not a whole hell of a lot. Nothing worth buying, honestly.

Anyway, my whole point is crafting can save you a lot of money when it comes to gifts....HOWEVER...and this is important: if you're going to do a handmade holiday, you have to do it well.

Far too often people go handmade and fail at it in an epic way. Case in point: the too-short Fun-Fur scarf made by someone who just learned to knit and figured it would be a good way to save some cash. Fun-Fur is one of the most horrific yarns known to man...and I do use the term "yarn" very lightly in this case. I think the term "abomination" would be more fitting. Have you felt this stuff? Ugh! It's like the textile version of nails-on-a-chalkboard to me. Sure, it has uses...but use with caution and sparingly if you can. And if you still wish to subject your poor relatives and friends to this scarf-nightmare....AT LEAST MAKE SURE IT IS LONG ENOUGH.

Ahem...

Another handmade fail: the inedible cookie. IF you are going to bake for a holiday or gift-giving event...don't be a lazy ass and purchase a roll of cookie dough at the store. IF you're going to make cookies, actually MAKE cookies! And please make sure whatever you're baking actually tastes good. Also, it would be nice if you made whatever foodstuff it is close enough to the event so that they aren't hard as brick-bats by the time they are received.

Seriously people, you wouldn't want to get this junk as a gift...so why are you subjecting other people to it? If you honestly don't care enough about the person to make sure you do this handmade thing right, perhaps you shouldn't be gifting them anything in the first place....

...Or perhaps you really are just delusional.

Actually...that's probably it. Haha