
How to make a star from paint sticks
I’ve been seeing these paint stick stars all over the internet and I wanted to give them a try and put my own spin on them. After seeing a few, I thought I bet it would look really cute with a rusty background. So, I gathered my supplies and began to create my star from paint sticks.
Anytime you see these tin cookie sheets at the Dollar Tree, I recommend picking up a few packs. I just love the texture of them and there’s so many cute crafts you can make with them. That is what I used to make the rusty background for my paint stick star.
I am making this as patriotic decor for my home, but you could certainly turn this into a Christmas DIY. To do this I would just add pine in place of the boxwood and write JOY instead of USA on the tag.
Materials:
- 5 paint sticks + a small piece of another
- Stain – I used minwax in the color dark walnut.
- Gloves and an old rag for applying the stain
- White chalk paint
- Hot glue sticks and glue gun
- E-6000
- Antique wax
- Paint pouncer
- Paint brushes
- Ribbon
- Greenery pick
- Brown tag
- Twine
- Tin cookie sheet from Dollar Tree
How to:
Step 1: First, we’re going to paint the paint sticks. You could just paint them one color and keep it that way, but I like the rough rustic look. To achieve this, I stained all my paint sticks with the dark walnut stain and allowed it to dry. Once it was dry, I then took some white chalk paint and painted it one to each stick. I allowed this to slightly dry. While it is still tacky, I took another paint stick or a popsicle stick and ran it over top to give a chippy would look. I’ve seen a few crafters try this and I really wanted to see how it worked and I think it turned out really cute.
Step 2: Next, let’s work on this rusty cookie sheet. First, you will want to cut the edge off of the cookie sheet, staying as close to the edge as possible.. if that makes sense, LOL. You’re going to need almost this full cookie sheet to fit the star on. Paint the cookie sheet with white chalk paint and allow to dry. Once it is dry, you can then take some antique wax and use your paint pouncer to pounce it all over the cookie sheet. This will give that rusty look that we all love so much. Once that dries you can take a little bit of seafoam green (or similar color) and go over the antique wax a little. This will give a slight patina look to your rusty tin. Once the tin is painted you can set it aside and allow it to dry.
Step 3: Now let’s put this star together. For this just begin gluing one end to the other until you have a star shape. You want the straight end and the kind of curved end to always be on top of each other. Watching my YouTube tutorial will give you a better understanding of this. You will want to use both E-6000 and hot glue on this project.
Step 4: Now we’re going to add the rusty background. Layer star on top of that in cookie sheet we just painted and trace it. Next, cut it out and glue it to the back of your star using both E 6000 and hot glue. Before you secure it down, make sure that your ends are even. Sometimes you have to trim one of the stars edges a little bit, so it doesn’t hang over your paint sticks.
Step 5: You can now embellish your star any way you wish. I wrote USA onto a brown paper tag and attached it to a piece of ribbon. I then hot glued a pick onto the star and the ribbon on top of the pick.
If you decide to make this DIY I’d love to hear from ya! You can drop a comment below or message me on any of my social media pages. Hope you have a blessed weekend and as always remember to keep it simple. Catch ya next week my friends! Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, youtube

