Fourth of July Crafts and more!

Ok, I finally got around to taking more pictures of the crafts we used at our party. First the crowns which I posted a picture of yesterday. I got the idea from Disney's Family Fun Magazine. Instructions on them are found here. I have to say of all the parenting/family magazines I get (and I get many of them) this is my favorite because it has easy crafts to do with kids and they have a special section for subscribers with younger children.

Now for some of the other crafts we did. First is the placemats which we didn't actually use, but the kids made their own. I got this idea from a craft Hazel did at the local library for flag day.

 I had cut all the paper for the kids so all they had to do was glue the red stripes on and they had plain blue construction paper with star stickers, so they could give a little variety to their own flags. Then we covered them with clear contact paper to make them placemat worthy.

Next are paper windsocks. I originally had a group of these hanging from our clothes line over the patio. Of course Hazel was sure they were going to blow away and insisted on us bringing them in. The kids enjoyed making these though. The easier ones are pictured here. I used blue star scrapbook paper (the leftover parts from the placemats) and red and white crepe paper. This idea was adapted from the Little Hands Book on America. For the 12 inch strip we used 6 pieces of crepe paper, but could have used 7 if we didn't want them alternating. Each of the kids made their own to take home.

 This is the harder version. Hazel and I only made one this way. I printed white stars (using Word's shape drawer) on paper and cut them out. We glued them on to blue construction paper and then glued the crepe paper on to the bottom and then made it a tube and added the yarn to hang it with.

 I also had printed out free coloring pages with Fourth of July themes from on line and melted down red, white, and blue (and silver) crayons in a star muffin pan for each child. These are some of them on the flag Hazel made at the library. I found instructions on recycling broken crayons on-line and in books--melt small pieces of crayon in sprayed muffin pans at 275. Keep a close eye on them as they can melt quickly but around 10 minutes (less if they are not filled well). I also made Hazel some rainbow round crayons with all the broken crayons we had (and some from the packages I bought to get enough red, white and blue). She loves them. She plays with some at the library as well. At the library, she has been known to build towers with them since they have so many more. The librarian melted down the crayons by color so each one is a different color versus my rainbow idea.

Well that is all the promised Patriotic crafts I have for you. Now off to sew some more. Hopefully I will finish the outfit and get Hazel to wear it so I can take a picture of it.

Good night!
Carrie