Christmas Cheats: Starfish ornaments

Edited to add to Kate's DIY Ornament party!

Welcome, friends, to Transformation Thursday! It's the one day of the week that we all get together to celebrate getting things done. If you're a newbie or a TT veteran, everyone is welcome to join in by using MckLinky below.

This week, I'm celebrating Christmas. Well, not the exact day, but I am celebrating getting some decorating done. We've had a full week of (I hope) great ideas, and we're gonna continue today with making some starfish for the Christmas tree.

You'll need some plaster of paris powder, sold at Hobby Lobby for $4.99/gallon. I've made dozens of pieces and barely used any at all, so you could get a smaller container (I think it's $2.99). You'll also need a really cheap, flexible plastic cup and a fork to mix it up. A bowl of play sand will become your mold and a starfish (you can get those at Hobby Lobby, too). Not shown, but needed is water, thin ribbon and cheap white spray paint.

Using barely damp sand, push your starfish into the leveled bowl of sand. First push the middle, then carefully (without moving it around), push down the end of each leg. Keep it all level and straight.

This step is going to take a little practice - mix your plaster powder with water, about 1 part water to 3 parts powder usually works, but humidity plays a huge part. Just think about the consistency of melted ice cream. Not too thin, not quite as thick as pancake batter. It's hard to explain, but your first couple will be practice anyway, just work with it until you get it right (I had about a half dozen bad ones before I got it right).

You want a thin plastic glass so that you can smoosh the end together to make a spout. Start with the middle, then pour out each leg of the mold. This part takes practice, too. If you make a little splatter, after a couple of minutes to let it set up then carefully try to scrape it away from the "good part."

Let it harden for about 30-45 minutes then pull it out of the sand. I use a paint brush to get as much sand off as I can. Let dry for 36-48 hours. (That's the hard part, uhhh... pardon the pun!) Once completely dry, brush the sand off one more time. If you use white sand, you won't need to paint them. If you use brownish sand, like I did, then give it three good coats of spray paint, letting it dry between coats.

Once all dry, carefully (because they break easily), use skinny ribbon to tie them onto the tree.

My "star" on top of my tree this year is a large, real starfish, I thought it was only appropriate.

Tomorrow we'll be throwing snowballs.... catch one if you can!

Now it's your turn! Put your PERMALINK into MckLinky and pretty, pretty please with starfish on top link back here so that everyone can find the great projects!

AND - before you scoot off to check out all the great links, scroll down one little post and see if you were a Christmas Carnival winner!

Ok, girls & guys - Let's go!