Just a few days before the 4th of July weekend is here - WOW - where is the summer going!!!

Are you creating anything cute and simple or making something yummy for that weekend?

Supplies:

-Acrylic Paints: Red, White and Blue
-Paint Brushes, you may want diferent brush widths
-Clear Spray to preserve them and that can be found down the paint aisle.
-Seashells, any shape or size

Instructions:

-First paint the shell white and let dry.
-Then take the blue and red and paint your areas, let that dry.
-Then take the white paint again or a white paint marker and make some stars in the blue area.

This craft can be made with either styrofoam cups or terra cotta pots.

Supplies:

-Styrofoam cup or terra cotta pot
-Felt: Red and blue
-Red paint option: blue paint may be used instead of felt
-Paintbrush
-Silver pipecleaner or paint
-Scissors
-White craft glue
-Black marker for tracing


Instructions:

-First thing you place the cup or pot open end down, on top of the red felt and trace with a marker.

-Cut around the traced circle leaving a ¾” border around it.

-After the circle is cut out, fold the circle and cut a slit in the center of the circle to allow your scissors to get in. Cut out the inside circle, leaving about a ¼” border around the inside of the trace line now set felt circle aside.

-Paint red stripes all the way around the outside of the cup, stripes should run up and down. Let dry completely.

-Cut a strip of blue felt about 1.5” wide. It should be long enough to wrap around the brim of the cup. Glue felt strip around the outside of the top of the cup. *You can use blue paint instead.

-Lay red felt circle on to work surface, black trace line should be facing up.
Line the lip of the cup with white glue and press down onto black trace line, let dry.

-Finally take the silver pipecleaner and bend into star shapes, trim where needed and glue onto the blue hat band or you may paint silver stars on.

Ingredients:

-Cake mix, any flavor
-White frosting: either homemade or store bought
-Food dye
-Candy sprinkles: yellow for stars
-Cupcake liners
*You need to make 20 cupcakes.

Directions:

-Mix and bake cupcakes according to directions on box, let cool.
-Now take white frosting and take two small amounts aside and in two different bowls and add blue food dye to make blue frosting and in the other bowl add red dye to make red frosting. Leave the rest of the white frosting alone do not dye.
-Take 8 of the cupcakes and frost with red frosting.
-Take 8 more of the cupcakes and frost with the white frosting.
-Now take the remaining 4 cupcakes and frost with the blue frosting, let dry and add you yellow candy sprinkles for stars.

-Finally find a rectangle plate, plater or a heavy duty piece of cardboard and arrange you decorated cupcakes to look like a flag. If you are using the cardboard you may want to wrap it in foil first. See below for arrangement of cupcakes.

Here's a cute and easy way to turn a roll of Lifesavers or similar into a Firecracker favor! FamilyFun: Firecracker Favors - and More Family Fun

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It's not what you make; it's what you spend.

These are very cute and the best part is when the party is all done you still have a yummy candy treat.

It's amazing what you can all make with lifesavers for craft projects. I have seen them made into racecars and butterflies at Valentine's times.

Supplies:

-Terra cotta planter and base
-Blue paint
-White paint or paint marker
-Paint brush

-First paint the planter and base blue, let dry
-Now take the white paint or white paint marker and put stars all around the outside of it, let dry.
-Insert votive candle

* You can use any size planter, base and candle*
*You could do all different sizes and arrange as a centerpiece.

I was looking around on the internet and came across this craft, it looks very simple to do and you can do so many things with these, such as incorporate into a centerpiece, the kids can wave them at parades, stick into flowerpots outside.

Supplies:

-Scissors
-Red, white, and blue felt
-Red, white, and blue ribbons
-Tacky glue
-3/8-inch dowel

Directions:

-The first step is to cut a pair of 6-inch stars from red, white, or blue felt.

-Now cut a slightly smaller pair from a different color of felt, and an even smaller pair from the third color.

-Take the tacky glue to glue the stars to each other, glue together the 2 sets of stars, putting a 3/8-inch dowel between them.

-Allow the glue to dry, then finish the baton by tying a length of red, white, and blue ribbon around the dowel.

I cannot believe these adorable ideas! I love the painted shells..have to head to the beach to collect some! : )

Smaller ones could become magnets too and would look cute!

We are making the Star Spangled Wavers posted above.

We are also doing fireworks pictures.

Have a blast this Fourth of July with these explosive designs: bursts of paint that resemble fireworks in the sky.
CRAFT MATERIALS:
Acrylic paint
Drinking straw
Paintbrush
Paper (or card stock)
Water

Time needed: 30 Minutes or Less
1. For each color, in a paper cup, dilute some acrylic paint with water to a runny consistency.

2. Using a paintbrush, drip a few drops of paint onto a piece of paper or card stock (be sure to rinse the brush between colors), then hold a drinking straw directly over each puddle of paint and blow gently to create a spectacular starburst effect.

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~AMY~

My blogs:
http://mylifeoneblogatatime.blogspot.com/

http://thesaltandpepperdiva.blogspot.com/