Starburst Mirror

When we gave Kenzie's room a makeover we knew we wanted to make this.  I found a great tutorial HERE, at Under the Table and Dreaming.

I printed up her TEMPLATE HERE but didn't glue it to the back, I was afraid the paper might come off the back.  The disk I found to use was about a quarter of an inch smaller than the template so I just marked the edges of the disk I used and then marked the template myself with a Sharpie.  Our itty bitty town doesn't have a craft store, at least not until this fall(squeal), so I asked at our new Lowe's.  When I showed her what I wanted to make she took me over to the garden center and found the perfect 6 1/2" circle for me, it's a coaster used for potted plants.  But this filled the bill perfectly!  I bought skewers from Walmart, .97 cents for a package of 100.  I picked up 2 packages so I could find the most even skewers.  I didn't use nearly as many as Under the Table did, but we didn't want a really full one.

Sort through the skewers to find the straightest ones.  If you have a grouted tile counter top, this works perfect, roll the skewers between the straight tile.  Mark 16 skewers 10 1/4" from the flat tipped end.  Mark 32 skewers at 9" the flat tipped end too.  NOT from the pointed tip, some skewers are not the same length, so you need to measure them from the flat tipped end.

Hot glue the first 16 at each marking, pointed tip in.  What worked best for me was making a small line of hot glue about an inch long, putting the skewer on the glue and twisting it.  If there is too much glue on the side then it makes it harder to align the next length next to it.  I added an extra bead to give it a little 3D dimension so the skewers that were marked at the 9" mark were actually a little raised if looking at the back side of the starburst.  When I flipped it, the longer skewers appeared to be raised.  You'll see....

 Keep gluing until all are fastened down. 

I took it outside and spray painted glossy black on both sides.  When dry, bring it back in and turn right side up.  See how the shorter ones appear to be recessed?

Flip it back over and fill in the skewers with lots of hot glue.  The back won't be pretty, but no one looks there anyways.  Decide which part of the starburst you want to be the top when you hang it on the wall.

I took some framing wire, twisted some loops and bent in half.  Hot glue it to the back.

Then, add even more hot glue.  Turn over and attach the mirror.  I found a grouping of peel and stick mirrors at TJ Maxx for around $6.00.  I think the coaster cost around $4.00, spray paint around $3.50.  The whole thing came to less than $20.00.

ENJOY!!!

~Jen