Kids are sure to have a blast making these fun and easy Recycled Cardboard & Magazine Star Wands! We are getting ready to celebrate the New Zealand Māori festival Matariki however these wands are a great craft to make year-round, perfect for Christmas or as a fun crafty activity at a birthday!

If you are interested in learning more about Matariki then head over to our Seven (9) Sisters of Matariki Star Printable where this important celebration is explained in more detail.

Recycled Cardboard & Magazine Star Wands

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These wands are very simple to make. A cardboard box is used for the star tops which are then decorated with magazine cuttings. A pipe cleaner gets twisted around a kebab stick which then is attached to the star. Completed with an optional ribbon and craft box goodies. You will never want to buy a wand again after making this fun recycled star wand!

Materials Needed

• An old cardboard box
• An old magazine
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Hot glue gun
• A copy of our free star printable, found here
• Kebab stick/ Wooden skewer
• Pipe cleaner
• Pen or pencil
• Craft box supplies such as adhesive gems and foam stickers
• Ribbon

Let’s Get Creating

Start by gathering all of your supplies. If you can prepare the cardboard box star bases ahead of time or while you are preparing the stars have the kids cut out images, colours, and patterns they like from the magazine. Make sure to make a few extra in case your kids want to make more than one.

Stars

Print and cut out the star printable. Decide on what star size you would like to use, we went for the smaller star inside the large star on the printable. Trace around the cut-out star onto the cardboard box and then cut out. Repeat until you have the number of stars needed.

Decorate the stars with cuttings from an old magazine. You can either prepare this ahead of time by cutting out small squares of different colours and patterns and presenting them nicely for kids to sort through or kids can do this part. I have a container of already cut-out magazine squares in different colours prepared for different crafts that we do but Miss 6 and 9 wanted to look through the magazines and select their own so we did a mixture of both. Use the glue stick to glue on the magazine cuttings. Layer the pieces slightly and don’t worry about going over the edge of the star.

Once the star is covered with the magazine cuttings flip it over and using the scissors trim the loose pieces of magazine paper off to recreate the star shape. Turn the star back over and decorate with extra craft box supplies.

Wand Handle

To make the wand handle get a kebab stick and a pipe cleaner. Tightly twist the pipe cleaner around the kebab stick. Next heat up the hot glue gun and stick the wand handle onto the back of the star.

Finish off your star wand by tying a piece of ribbon around the handle directly under the star.

You May Also Enjoy

• Foil Art Stars
• 6 Matariki Star Crafts
• DIY Scratch Art Stars
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• Lockdown Kids Crafts Using Recycled Materials

Thank you for stopping by. We hope you had fun making these Recycled Cardboard & Magazine Star Wands today!