Packing Peanuts And Cardboard Stars Craft

When I received a box filled with packing peanuts I immediately started thinking about how I'd use them for a craft project, and the first thing that came to mind was packing peanut stars. Of course, I actually thought I'd make the entire star out of packing peanuts, but with no real plan in mind, these fun stars are what actually came to be! The stars are quite large (the cardboard circle in the middle is from a family sized frozen pizza package) and fortunately turned out to be pefect decorations for the stage of our community Purim party this week. My only regret is that I only had time to make seven of them, the more the better!

I truly hope that none of you will have a bunch of packing peanuts delivered to your door, but if it does happen, now you'll know how to use them up rather than tossing them, right? As for the remainder of the packing peanuts, I did use a few more for another craft that I'll be sharing with you soon, but I still have quite q few to use up, and I'm thinking they could make great frosting for a large cardboard cake!

You'll Need:

• s-shaped styrofoam packing peanuts that you wished you never received as they are an ecological nightmare
• hot glue
• recycled cardboard
• colored card stock or cardboard ( I used those huge press-sized sheets, perfect for making the centers)

How To:

1. Cut large circles from recycled cardboard of some kind. My circles are actually part of a round packaging for frozen pizzas.
2. Leaving the center portion empty glue on a few rows of packing peanuts. You can fill the whole circle to the edge, or not, I did both as you can see in the photo.
3. To make the pleated medallion for the center you will need a very long piece of paper, cut from your press-sized sheet of paper, or made by joining roughly 4 A4 sized sheets of paper together. According fold the strip, and then join the first fold to the last fold to make a circle. Hot glue a small circle to the back side to hold the center in place. And then hot glue the finished medallion to the center portion where there are no packing peanuts.
4. Make a template for the size of your triangular star spikes, and cut out eight of them individually. Attach to the back of the circle with hot glue.
5. Using hot glue, some string and a small piece of cardboard, place a loop of sting into a glob of hot glue, and then place a litte strip over the glob to hold the string in place.
6. Hang and enjoy, and then pack it away to save for future occasions, or use it (them( in a child's room as fun wall decor)

Enjoy!