I can just imagine seeing a bunch of these being waved around.  What a brightly colored display!

The instructions below are written to include using a hot glue gun so this craft is more suited towards older children and not toddlers or pre-schoolers. 

Items needed:

12” Wooden dowels from craft store, blue and white Acrylic paint, 1” rolls of Satin ribbon: 2 blue, 2 red, and 2 white, thin bristle paint brush, foam brush, and a hot glue gun.

Let’s start by taking the foam brush and painting the wood dowels with the blue paint. You can leave one end of the dowel unpainted since the ribbon will be there.  Let completely dry.

With the thin bristle brush, paint white star bursts on the dowel.

Let completely dry.

Cut the ribbon into 20″ strips keeping the three colors in separate piles. 

Fold the ribbon in half and loop it around the end of the wand where you didn’t paint. Pull the ends through and the loop and tighten.

Loop three rows of blue ribbon and then finish with alternating the red and white ribbons. Take the glue gun and secure the ribbon to the wood dowel.

Now you are ready to wave your country patriotism with your 4th of July Ribbon Wand!

We have more patriotic ideas for you!

Patriotic Paper Chain Free Printable

4th of July Firecrackers

4th of July Poke Cake

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Secondly, is that your grandkids will have a ton of fun making this cake with you.  What kid wouldn’t want to squirt red and blue into a cake?

And third, it is super easy to make and your grandkids will think you are amazing that you made it for them!

This also isn’t just for a patriotic holiday.  It’s perfect for any summer barbecue or backyard party.

Print

4th of July Poke Cake

Course 4th of July, Dessert, Holiday

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 12 -15

Author TGIF - This Grandma Is Fun

Ingredients

• Cake
  
• 1 white cake mix
• 4 large eggs room temperature
• ½ cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 small box 3.4 oz cherry gelatin - you will use ½ the package
• 1 small box 3.4 oz berry blue gelatin - you will use ½ the package
• 1 cup boiling water divided
• ½ cup cold water divided
• Frosting
  
• 8 oz container whipped topping, thawed
• 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• teaspoon vanilla extract
• Toppings
  
• Additional whipped topping
• Sprinkles
• Fruit

Instructions

• Cake
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a 13x9 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray
• Combine cake mix, eggs, water, oil and until smooth
• Spread evenly into baking dish, bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
• Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes
• Combine ½ of the package (about 2 tablespoons) red gelatin and ½ cup boiling water and stir about 2 minutes until dissolved, add ¼ cup cold water and stir to combine
• Using a wooden skewer or large fork, poke holes into cake about every 1/2 inch
• Combine ½ of the package (about 2 tablespoons) blue gelatin and ½ cup boiling water and stir about 2 minutes until dissolved, add ¼ cup cold water and stir to combine
• Carefully pour gelatin over the cake
• 
• Place in refrigerator at least 3 hours or overnight
• Frosting
  
• In a mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese until smooth
• Add powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until smooth
• Fold in whipped topping until smooth
• 
• Spread over cake
• Store in refrigerator until ready to serve
• Store leftovers in refrigerator covered with plastic wrap
• Serve with additional whipped topping, sprinkles or fruit
• 
  
• Pro Tip:
• Add jello to squeeze bottles to make adding the jello to the holes in the cake easier.

Do you still want to poke something?  Here’s another poke cake for ya!

Chocolate Pudding Poke Cake

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Hello TGIF Readers! We’ve got a fun printable for you today with this Patriotic Paper Chain.  A paper chain is one of the most easiest craft that a child can do.  At Christmas time, they are a favorite to decorate a homemade Christmas tree.  Why not for a patriotic holiday?

For the best quality, print this printable at a copy store on photo paper.  Your colors will be much more bright like in these photos.

Grab some kids scissors and a stapler.  You can also use a glue stick but that will take a little time to dry.  Cut out all of your strips.

Start making your loops and alternate between the stars and the stripes.  Staple or glue together.

Now you have a darling paper chain that you can hang up as a garland around the house.  I love the red, white and blue that makes it look so festive! 

Download Patriotic Paper Chain Down HERE

More patriotic craft ideas:

Bomb Pop Cookies

4th of July Firecrackers

The post Patriotic Paper Chain appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

The items needed for this craft are toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes cut in half, red, white and blue tissue paper, red, white and blue pipe cleaners and some patriotic ribbon, then lots of treats as a filler.  We used small candies but you could also put in small toys or balloons. Anything goes that would fit in the tubes.

Cut your tissue paper into about 10 inch squares.  You will want 2-3 layers of whatever color you are working with.

Roll your tube around the tissue paper.  You can either glue with a glue gun (with supervision if you have little kids!) or Elmer’s glue works also but will take a little longer time to dry.

Cut some of your pipe cleaners into smaller pieces and wrap these around the bottom of the tissue paper.  Twist tightly and then put the pipe cleaner into the end of the tube to hide it.  Don’t cut all of your pipe cleaners though.  You’ll  need some longer ones later.

Now fill your tubes with all of the goodies that you have gathered.

You can decorate the outside of your 4th of July Firecrackers by gluing on some ribbon but I think that some patriotic stickers would also look cute!

To close your tube, wrap a full length pipe cleaner around the top of the tissue paper and twist tightly. Make the pipe cleaner curly by wrapping it around a pencil.  We also fashioned a star popping out of the top.

Now you are ready for any 4th of July party with these fun poppers! Kid love cracking them open to find their surprises! 

Thank you to How Does She for a great patriotic kids craft!

Need a little more patriotic spirit?  Try out these crafts!

Kids Teeshirt              Popsicle Stick Flag

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With my daughters having all of their kids home from school, they have been doing lots more kids crafts to keep the little ones busy.  This is a super easy craft that your kids can take outside and will hopefully keep them busy for a little while!

Here’s what you will need:

White or Glittery Star stickers.  We used both!

Blue paper bags

2 Popsicle sticks

Red and white streamers

Glue Stick

Yarn or twine

Ok, so here we go.  Stick the star stickers on to the blue bag.

Then cut a very small hole in the bottom of your bag

From the outside, stick the end of your yarn or twine through the hole of your bag and tie it on to a popsicle stick.  Pull your yarn until the popsicle stick rests on the bottom of the inside of your bag. 

On the outside bottom of your bag, leave enough yarn or twine to fly the kite and wrap it around another popsicle stick.

Glue your streamers around the whole inside of your bag.

Now let’s get ready to fly!

If you don’t have any wind these might not get a good enough lift but not to fear.  The kids had a blast running and swinging them around anyway!  Which makes this Paper Bag Flag Kite a huge success!

If you are looking for additional kids crafts, we’ve got these handy for you!

Coffee Filter Butterflies     Firecracker Marshmallows      Clothes Pin Bird Craft

The post Paper Bag Flag Kite appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

With only four ingredients, kids can make these up super fast and that’s the kind of food craft that this Grandma is looking for.

And the end result has a cherry on top?  Can’t get any better than that.

Alrightee.  Let’s get poppin’!

Print

Firecracker Marshmallows

Course Snack

Author This Grandma Is Fun

Ingredients

• 1 bag of large marshmallows - approx 30
• 6 oz of white candy melts or white almond bark
• Blue Sprinkles
• 1 jar of maraschino cherries with the stem still attached

Instructions

• Melt the white chocolate melts per the instructions on the bag making sure not to burn the chocolate
• Dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate and then into the blue sprinkles
• Place on parchment paper or waxed paper
• Gently dip the maraschino cherry into the melted white chocolate and place on top of the marshmallow.
• Let cool before eating.

These Firecracker Marshmallows were a super fun food craft that we got from Kid Friendly Things To Do.

If you are feeling brave, you can also try making your own homemade marshmallows.   Check this out!

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Back in 1968, Congress introduced a bill to help create some long weekends to (hopefully) prevent people from skipping work. The bill passed in 1971 under President Nixon, and the holiday Washington’s Birthday was placed on the third Monday of February. It took another decade before Americans started to include Lincoln in their celebration and call it Presidents’ Day.

However, Presidents’ Day doesn’t fall on the actual birthdays of any of our presidents: Washington’s birthday is February 22, and Lincoln’s is February 12. And the holiday is actually celebrated differently depending on your home state. While most states spotlight Washington and Lincoln, others celebrate Jefferson (Alabama), for example.

OK, so why is the focus primarily on Presidents Washington and Lincoln? If you’re fuzzy on American history, here is a little recap (link topinspired.com) you can share with your grandkids. We can teach them why these leaders deserve our deepest honor and respect.

George Washington

• Served as president from 1789 to 1797.
• As our nation’s first president, he was voted unanimously to serve two terms.
• He would not accept any salary, and even contributed his own funds to our country’s budget.
• He created the title, “Mr. President.”
• He served as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army for 8½ years. The poor army struggled in miserable conditions, but under Washington’s leadership beat Great Britain.
• He organized the first Cabinet and played a major role in creating the Bill of Rights, amendments to our Constitution that guarantee many of our rights and freedoms.
• He helped create our nation’s policies of neutrality with other countries.

Abraham Lincoln

• Served as president from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.
• He was our country’s 16^th president.
• He worked hard to preserve the Union and win the Civil War by improving the army’s military tactics.
• He was antislavery, and under the Emancipation Proclamation, more than three million slaves were set free.
• He implemented the printing of paper money and bank credit under the National Currency Act.
• He created the Department of Agriculture, which helped our nation’s farmers.
• He created our Thanksgiving holiday as a token of gratitude to God for winning the Civil War.

And just for fun, check out these Presidents’ Day activities for kids. This 300-piece puzzle of our nation’s presidents is a surefire tool to help educate kids on our nation’s leaders. If you want a more “puzzling” challenge, try the White House 3D puzzle, which includes 64 pieces and is rated “easy.” This American presidents activity book contains puzzles and other fun pencil games. There is also a U.S. presidents card game that would be fun to try!

The post These facts about Presidents’ Day will inspire you appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

I happened to be looking through a Family Fun magazine the awhile back and they had this exact cake but it was in ombre form with 4 different shades of purple pretzels.  Very beautiful indeed, but I instantly thought that I would love to do it in red, white and blue.

I love our country’s patriotic colors but I’m not a big fireworks person.  It seems like every time our family gets around fireworks, something catches on fire.  Meaning something that’s not supposed to be on fire, catches on fire.

Last summer our family was having a family reunion in St. George, Utah and we let the little kids do sparklers.  One of our grandsons got too close to a palm tree and with all that netting stuff around those trees, it caught on fire within seconds.   We were able to get it out before anything else caught on fire but we conveniently neglected to tell the owners of the home we were renting that we had a little mishap.  No harm, no foul right?  The tree looked just fine. Phew!

So this year our 4th of July holiday will be much quieter and we will be enjoying it without fireworks but celebrating with food.  I mean, what are holidays without food? And I love to do themed food so we will be enjoying this 4th of July cake.  It’s much better than sparklers!

Print

4th of July Cake

Course Dessert

Author This Grandma Is Fun

Ingredients

• 1 box white cake mix plus ingredients to make the cake per instructions on box
• 1 bag of mini pretzel twists
• 5-6 large thin pretzel twists
• 1 bag each of red white and blue candy melts. I purchased mine at Wal-Mart.
• White Pareils
• 3 6 " cake pans
• 2 cans white frosting
• Non stick cooking spray

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease and flour your 6" baking pans.
• Prepare cake mix and bake according to instructions on package.
• Let your three cakes cool on a wire rack.
• Lay some parchment paper or some foil down and place a separate wire rack on top
• Spray the rack with non stick cooking spray
• Melt the blue candy melts according to instructions on package.
• Drop the mini pretzels into the chocolate. With a fork, remove the pretzel and tap off excess chocolate.
• Lay the pretzel on the sprayed wire rack.
• On the blue mini pretzels, you can also sprinkle some white pareils on them to represent some little white stars.
• Let pretzels cool.
• Repeat with the red and white candy melts.
• For this size of cake you will need 15 blue mini pretzels, and 30-35 red and white mini pretzels.
• Also dip the large pretzels twists with the color of chocolate you desire. I did just red and blue. These will be for the garnishment on the top of the cake.
• I had some melted chocolate left over, so I spooned the chocolate into a zip loc bag, make a small cut in the corner and squeezed some chocolate lines onto some parchment paper and made some tips and backs of arrows which I added as garnishment to the top of the cake.
• Using a serrated knife, cut off the domes on two of the layers of cake.
• Place one cake layer on your serving platter and top with frosting.
• Repeat with second and third layers of cake.
• Use remaining frosting to cover the top and sides. Apply the frosting fairly thick on the sides to help the pretzels hold.
• Starting at the bottom, layer the pretzels around the sides of the cake. Gently press the pretzels into the frosting to adhere them to the cake.
• Add the large, dipped pretzels onto the top of the cake and any other garnishment you would like.
• As I said earlier, I made some arrow tips and backs and added those to the top.

Have a safe 4th of July!

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Hey hey all! It’s Nancy from The Bitter Side of Sweet again! I hope you are having a wonderful extended weekend! Do you have plans for cookouts? We are keeping it way low key. We do have our youngins to entertain and feed so I thought I would come up with the perfect type of snack/dessert for little ones!

Making this popcorn was the simplest recipe that I have had made in a LONG time! I have an air popper so that basically did all of the work for me. Then I used my microwave to finish the rest of it and BAM! It was done! Seriously, it doesn’t get easier than that!

Now when I make this type of popcorn it always catches people off guard because it is sticky and sweet. But that is the fun of it!! You can also roll it into popcorn balls. I actually made some extra, bagged them up and sent them off to my hubby’s work!

This would also be a great go-to recipe for the Fourth of July! It is a favorite at any get together or family gathering and can be made in massive quantity.

ENJOY!

Print

Patriotic Marshmallow Popcorn

Course Snack

Servings 6

Author Nancy Piran

Ingredients

• 2 cups mini marshmallows
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 5 cups popped popcorn
• 1 tablespoon patriotic sprinkles

Instructions

• In microwavable safe bowl add marshmallows and butter.
• Microwave for 45 seconds. Checking after 30 seconds that your marshmallow is not burning.
• Stir marshmallow mixture. Add popcorn and stir till well combined.
• Add sprinkles. Stir, serve and ENJOY!

Want more popcorn? You MUST check out these other tasty flavors! Here you go…

Nutella Marshmallow Popcorn

Chocolate Popcorn Pretzel Bark

Coconut Flax Popcorn (For a healthy option)

The post Patriotic Marshmallow Popcorn appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

As an adult, we’ve had some experiences with fire and the 4th of July (can you tell there’s a story there?) so we’ve slowed down a little with our patriotic festivities, but the 4th of July was a holiday that I always looked forward to when I was growing up. My family had a boat and if you want to hear a funny story about our family boat, check out my sister’s Sherri’s post here!

Anyway, our family would always take our boat out to Catalina Island off the Southern California coast for the 4th of July weekend. But before we left, our Dad would buy the boxes of Black Cat or Red Devil fireworks. After we got there and the sun went down, we could hardly wait for it to be dark enough for fireworks! Dad had a long plank of wood that he would nail the fireworks onto one end, then he would light it and then quickly push the plank out so that the fireworks would go off over the water but far enough away from our boat. He then would pull the plank back in, get another firework ready, light it and then push it out again. It was the best fun ever.

My love of holidays has not faded through the years and it has been so much fun to celebrate holidays now that I have grandchildren! A couple of weeks ago I got to visit my two grandsons and was excited to make these 4th of July Kids Tee Shirts with them. This would be a darling idea for the whole family to make and wear on the 4th of July!

The paint that we used for these tee shirts were Americana Acrylic Paints in Primary Red and True Blue.

Pouring the True Blue paint out on a paper plate, place your child’s hand in the paint. Make sure each and every finger gets paint on it!

Then try to spread their fingers out as much as you can and place their hand on the tee shirt, pressing down each finger firmly. Little brother is a little over one year old and it was a challenge to get him to spread his fingers out!

And now it’s Big Brothers turn!

Then with the Primary Red color, paint the flag stripes around the blue hand print. I love the the roughness of the lines that Big Brother painted!

Now they are both ready for the 4th of July!

Oh, and do you see the little star on Little Brother’s shirt?

Yeah, Big Brother decided that Little Brother needed a little help and helped him out in the form of a blue fingerprint on his tee shirt! So we just made a star out of it and think it looks just fine! Besides what’s more American than a star?

No matter where or how you do your fireworks, your family will be ready in these super easy and fun 4th of July Tee Shirts!

I did pin this from Pinterest but it didn’t have a link to follow through to the original post.

***UPDATE 6/30/14***

A dear friend of mine made these tee shirts with all of her grandkids. Look how cute these turned out! I love how different each one is and the bright colors just really stand out!

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This post is sponsored by Heidi Swapp.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you love red, white and blue?  I absolutely love decorating my house for a patriotic holiday.  We aren’t big fireworks people, (that’s a story for another day!) but I love seeing all the red, white and blue decorations for a patriotic holiday.

And with my Minc Foil Applicator from Heidi Swapp, it is easy to get big bold red, white and blue color for projects like this!   Look how stunning and rich these foil colors are.  I’m in love!

In order for the Foil Applicator to work, you just need to print anything you want (is that cool or what?) from a laser printer.  I don’t have one of those at home so I purchased these papers from Creative Market and took them to my local print shop to have them copied off on to some card stock.  Voila!  Super easy.  I then put them through the applicator to bond the foil to the paper.  (To learn how to use this machine, see directions HERE.)

Heidi’s Minc Foil Applicator can be found at Michael’s, JoAnn’s and also online.  Seriously.  Do you have a birthday coming up?  Then go and treat yourself to one of these machines.  You are even going to want to foil your toilet paper.   Ok maybe not.  But you are going to want to foil everything else!

To make this paper wreath you will need:

1. 12″ floral foam wreath.  I could only find a green one and I didn’t want any green showing through my red, white and blue papers, so I quickly spray-painted mine white.

2.  Elmer’s Craft Bond Spray Adhesive

3.  Card stock paper either printed and foiled or you can also use pre-printed papers.

4.  Scissors or a paper cutter

INSTRUCTIONS:  After foiling your paper, cut them into strips.  I cut mine about 1 1/2″ by 10 inches, but if you’d like longer strips, you can definitely cut them a little longer.

After cutting, spray both ends with the bonding spray and then wrap it around your wreath, lining up the edges together.

If one end is slightly wider than the other, make sure the wider end is on top so you don’t have any white from the back of the paper showing through.  Press to seal.

Continue on around your wreath until you are satisified with the coverage of the wreath.  Then you will want to cut a “v” shape into the ends:

That’s it!  Now you’re ready to hang this stunning wreath for the holidays.   (Prepare to receive compliments.)  Everyone ALWAYS wants to know how I foil my projects.  There are other ways, but this Minc machine is by far the easiest.

A big thanks to Ain’t She Crafty for the inspiration for this project.

Please have a safe 4th of July holiday with your family and friends as we celebrate our freedoms that our country blesses us with.   God Bless America.

Are you looking for some MORE red, white and blue for the holiday? Check these out!

4th of July Ice Cream Cones

4th of July Mason Jar Candles

Popsicle Stick Flag Craft

This awesome post has been shared with Home Stories A to Z

The post Patriotic Paper Wreath appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

Have we got a great craft project for you today!  If you have girls that like to make things, then you are going to want to read this tutorial.   These are super easy to make, super cheap but also super cute!  When my girls were littler, I always loved having projects like these for them to make during the summer instead of just watching movies all day and they would have loved making these Fabric Bracelets.

This is a great project to be able to use  all of your scrap fabric.  And you won’t believe what you use for the “bracelet part”.   Plastic Shower Rings!  I know what you are saying…”Get out of Town!”  I know, right?!?!

Here is what you will need to get going on this fun project:

Plastic Shower Rings (I bought mine at the Dollar Tree for $1!)

Scrap Material ( I bought some fat quarters at WalMart for like 97 cents.)

Scissors

Wire cutters (not pictured)

Glue Gun (not pictured)

With  your wire cutters, cut off the “pokey” part of the shower ring.  If you have super small arms, you can leave this on and use it to close your bracelet.

With your scissors, cut your strips of fabric into 1/2 inch strips.  I cut mine from selvage to selvage and one strip covered one bracelet perfectly.

Taking your glue gun, glue the underside of one of the ends of the shower ring and attach a strip of fabric.

Put another drop of glue on the top side of the shower ring and pull your fabric strip around.

Now you want to start wrapping the fabric around the shower ring covering any white that you can see.  When you wrap, make sure you cover the edge of the last wrap so that the shower ring doesn’t show through. Wrap as tightly as you can.

When you are at the end, wrap the fabric strip over the end and tack on the inside of the shower ring with some glue so that none of the shower ring shows.

Cut off any remaining fabric.  Now you are ready to wear your masterpiece!

Tutorial inspiration from The 36th Avenue

We made these in red, white and blue for the upcoming 4th of July but they can be made in any colors and trust me…if you have daughters, they are going to want some in EVERY color.  And with how inexpensive these are to make, you can let them make these till their hearts content!

You can also find us on Pinterest │ Facebook │ Twitter │ Instagram │ StumbleUpon │ Hometalk

 This awesome post has been shared with Homestories A to Z and Whipperberry.

The post Fabric Bracelet Tutorial appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

2. Kids Firework Craft Using a Fork from Crafty Morning

3. 4th of July Strawberries

4. DIY Painted Flower Pot from Happy Healthy Hip Parenting

5. Patriotic Glitter Candles and Printable Tags from A Pumpkin and A Princess

6. Fourth of July Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting from Made From Pinterest

7. Blueberry Strawberry Jicama Salsa from Two Peas and Their Pod

8. Fourth of July Cake Pops from Passion for Savings

9. 4th of July Kids Tee Shirts from Made From Pinterest

10. M & M Red, White, and Blondies from Your Homebased Mom

11. Nautical 4th of July S’mores Bag Toppers Printables from Anders Ruff

12. DIY Patriotic Wreath from Made From Pinterest

13. DIY Patriotic Shoes from Pretty Providence

14. Snow Cone Cupcakes from Bakerella

15. Patriotic Ice Cream Sandwiches from Made From Pinterest

16. Fourth of July Fun and Games Station from Uncommon Designs

17. Berry Raspberry Icebox Cookies from The Cooking Photographer

18. Chocolate Dipped Oreos from Made From Pinterest

19. 4th of July Muffins from Barbara Bakes

20. 4th of July Snack Mix from Glorious Treats

21. Popsicle Stick Flag Craft from Made From Pinterest

22. Confetti Launchers from Piikea Street

23. No Bake Patriotic Marshmallow Cheesecake from Sweet as a Cookie

24. 4th of July Ice Cream Cones from Made From Pinterest

25. Patriotic Popcorn Lollipops from Simply Kierste

26. 13 FREE Patriotic Printables from Sugar Bee Crafts

27. 4th of July Firecracker Bananas from Made From Pinterest

28. Red, White & Blue Mason Jars from It all Started with Paint

29. Brownie and Berry Parfaits from Mandy’s Recipe Box

30. 4th of July Sparkler Cupcakes from Made From Pinterest

31. USA Fourth of July Decor from Mabey She Made It

32. 4th of July Free Printables from Kensie Kate

33. 4th of July Bandanna Tablecloth from Made from Pinterest

34. White Chocolate Bowls from Restless Chipotle

35. Firecracker Sugar Cookies from Mom Dot

36. Patriotic Jello Stars from Made from Pinterest

37. 4th of July Firecracker Dogs from Handmade in the Heartland

38. Red, White and Blue Cookie Bark from Your Homebased Mom

39. 4th of July Mason Jar Candles from Made from Pinterest

40. Funfetti Cheesecake Cookies from Something Swanky

41. Patriotic Kids S’mores from Passion for Savings

42. Layered Patriotic Drink from Made from Pinterest

43. Patriotic Popcorn from Crazy Little Projects

44. Star Spangled Desserts from Giggles Galore

45. Revolution Cookies from Made from Pinterest

46. Patriotic Breakfast from Holiday Helpings

47. Oreo Cheesecake Pops and Free Party Printables from Living Locurto

48. American Flag Cake from Made from Pinterest

49. Patriotic Cake Mix Jello Cookies from Tastes of Lizzy T’s

50. 4th of July Sparkler Holder Free Printable from Over the Big Moon

The post 50 Patriotic Red, White and Blue Food and Craft Projects appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

On July 9th, my 19 year old daughter is going to Mexico, Mexico City as a missionary for our church. She will serve the wonderful people of Mexico for 18 months. Before leaving for Mexico she will spent 6 weeks at a Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah. At the MTC she will learn about missionary service and attend an intense “bootcamp” course on Spanish to help her learn the language.

We have been blessed with 5 children who have grown up to become best friends to each other. Two years ago we gained our wonderful son-in-law who is a perfect addition to the family, a year later our darling granddaughter was born. Our whole family is going to drive (again!) to Utah to drop my missionary daugher off at the MTC. There will be some serious tears shed by everyone when we send her on her mission!

This will be our 3rd road trip in about a month! This is what summer is all about, vacation and quality time with family and I LOVE IT! With all the vacationing going on I had to get organized early for the 4th of July, I fell in love with these 4th of July Banana Splits from Jamielyn at I Heart Naptime. If you haven’t been to her blog be sure to head on over and check out all her creative ideas! I found that adding 1/4 cup of melted paraffin wax to about 1/2 of melted chocolate really helped the chocolate stick to the banana and kept the chocolate from hardening before I could shake my 4th of July sprinkles on. After adding the paraffin wax dipping the bananas and adding the sprinkles was quick and easy! It’s a good thing these were so easy to make and taste so good, because now I have to go and get the laundry done so I can be ready to pack for our next road trip! Just sayin….’ This Pin Totally Rocks!

Print

4th of July Firecracker Bananas

Course Dessert

Author Adapted by Made From Pinterest

Ingredients

• Colored chocolate candy melts
• Bananas
• Lemon juice
• 4 th of July Sprinkles
• Cherries with stems
• Sherri's Stabilized whip cream
• Paraffin wax

Instructions

• Lay a large piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet
• Cut bananas into 1 1/2 to 2 inch sections
• Dip bananas into lemon juice, don't let the bananas sit in the lemon juice, it will make them soft.
• Melt chocolate candy melts and paraffin wax in a bowl.
• Dip bananas into chocolate, shake off excess chocolate
• Shake the sprinkles over the melted chocolate.
• Set on wax paper to cool.
• Add a dollop of stabilized whip cream.
• Place chocolate dipped cherry on top.
• Serve and enjoy!

Click on any of these pictures to see some more great 4th of July ideas!

We’re sharing this post with:

Living Well Spending Less

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I remember my Dad would always pull me aside on the first day and tell me I didn’t have to ski, knee board, jet ski and go inner tubing all on the first day of our vacation. I never listened to him. I always did everything the first day. I played the minute we got on the lake right up to the minute we got off the lake. I usually had to spend half of the next day recovering on the shore. Oh to be young again. If I did that now I would be wiped out for the rest of my vacation! Who am I kidding? I couldn’t do that many water sports all day even if I wanted too!

 Supplies

• Store bought cupcakes
• Colored chocolate candy melts
• Ziploc bag
• White Sugar Crystals
• Scissors

Lay a piece of wax paper on a flat cookie sheet. Melt some colored chocolate candy melts in a bowl, pour melted chocolate into a zip lock bag. Snip off enough of the tip of ziplock bag to make a medium size hole.  First draw a straight line that will go into the cupcake, then make the line into a squiggle. Sprinkle sugar crystals over the chocolate and allow to harden. Once the sparklers have hardened, carefully remove them from the wax paper and insert into store bought or homemade cupcakes.

If you don’t snip off a big enough tip of the ziplock bag, your sprinklers will be to thin and fragile. They will break when you try to lift them off the wax paper or when you try to push them into your cupcakes. Make them on the thicker side and you will be fine!

When we were done playing on the Lake, we spent the evening playing one of our favorite games called sardines. It’s basically hide and go seek backwards. One person hides, while the rest of the group counts to 100. Then everyone in the group goes and looks for the person who was hiding. The person who was hiding had to choose a place large enough to fit all the other people in. The goal of the game was to find the person hiding and join them. You didn’t want to end up the last person wandering around not knowing where everyone else is hiding. My Dad wasn’t a big camper so we stayed at a hotel called Wahweep Lodge. We usually had at least 10 kids when we played this game, so finding the perfect hiding spot was tricky.

One year I found THE perfect hiding place, a janitor’s closet. Several people wandered around for a good 30 minutes before finding the rest of us! The only thing that would have made that night better is if we had some of these Sparkler Cupcakes from Better Homes and Gardens to eat while we were waiting to be found! I love using chocolate cupcake toppers like these on store bought cupcakes, it’s a huge times saver with a great WOW factor! Look how cute my Valentine’s day chocolate cupcake toppers turned out. Oh yes……

This Pin Rocks!

Here are more fun 4th of July Ideas, just click on the picture and you will be taken to the post!

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Living Well Spending Less

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Completely different sizes.

But it is sort of my fault. I suspected I should order nicer quality bandannas online. But two things got in my way. One, I am cheap. I had a coupon for our local craft store. Two, I wanted to make this in time to post if for 4th of July last year, and didn’t have enough time to wait for shipping. After I washed and dried them, ironed them and laid them on top of each other, I learned the awful truth. They were not just a little different in size, they were a lot different in size.

But this year, I had time to cut things down to size.

Literally.

I folded the bandannas in fourths, measured from the center and cut them to a uniform size.

It really didn’t take so long. I might have been able to finish it last year, if I had thought it through. At the moment all I thought was agghhhh!

If you buy quality bandannas, you have the benefit of sewing them together and not having to worry about any unfinished edges because the edges are already finished. If you go cheapo and fasto like me, just zigzag or serge the pieces together.

To make the tablecloth I made 4 rows of three bandannas in this pattern:

R W B

B R W

W B R

R W B

Once the rows were finished, I sewed the rows together, matching seams. Actually, my seams don’t match so well. Even after tidying up for size on these bad boys, they were still a little off. One of my art teachers taught me that artists and creators never make a mistake. They just make design changes. So I made a design change that gives this a more homespun look. That homespun look is intentional. That is my design story and I am sticking to it.

This would make a great quilt with a denim backing for a real American cowboy look. I would love to make one in muted reds and blues for an Americana look too. I found this idea at Me and My Insanity. Really you could use any color to fit your decor and it would make a great looking table cover for picnics.

I had fun making this and  hope you will have fun making your own mistakes homespun tablecloth. Since making this I have found these bandannas at Tan’s Club that are much more uniform in size, although not exact and they are at nice price.

This Pin Rocks!

Click on these pictures for a few more of our great patriotic ideas!

Layered Patriotic Drink

DIY Patriotic WreathPopsicle Stick Flags

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Living Well Spending Less

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4th of July Rustic Mason Jars

Hi to all the Made From Pinterest fans! I’m Melanie Artz from Artzy Creations and I’m so excited to be here with you today. I blog about DIY, crafts, kids crafts along with a few recipes and beauty posts. Overall, if it’s “Artzy” you will find me making it! If you have a chance, I would love for you to stop by and check out Artzy Creations. Well, I had the pleasure of meeting the awesome Made From Pinterest sisters at the SNAP conference this past April and I’m so excited because they have asked me to be a regular contributor. Today, I want to share with you a great way to jazz up an every day Mason Jar for the up and coming 4th of July Holiday. With Mason Jars being so popular, I thought it would be super cute to have some that had ruffles on them making a great centerpiece. So, here is my tutorial for the 4th of July Rustic Mason Jar.

Here’s What You Need:

• Mason Jar (Quart Size with ring)
• White Spray Paint (Flat Protective Enamel)
• 3 Bandannas (Red, White & Blue) I found these at Walmart.
• Hot Glue
• Needle & Thread (But, a sewing machine is preferred)
• Button Cover Kit

Begin by spray painting the mason jar with the white spray paint and let the it dry thoroughly.

Step 1: Cut your three strips of fabric. Cut your Blue bandanna 4″ in width, Red to 3″, and White 2″. Make sure you have no finished edges remaining, so go ahead and cut them off of the ends.

Step 2: Fray the edges of your bandannas by pulling a few of the the top & bottom horizontal threads of the bandanna. You can also use a sewing pin to help fray the edges. Just pick at the individual strings and then pull on them to help the edges fray.

Step 3: Lay your (3) fabrics on top of one another and sew a loose single stitch down the middle.

Step 4: To create your ruffle, take one of the two threads and gently pull it, causing the sewn fabric to pucker.

Step 5: To create the fabric flower, cut a 1″ strip of fabric 6″ in length. Next, base stitch along the bottom of the fabric. Once you get to the end, pull it tight and sew/tie it off. Create a button using an easy button cover kit. I finished the flower by sewing the fabric covered button to the center.

There you have it. I think these would make great centerpieces for any 4th of July Celebration.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial.

You can follow me at Artzy Creations Instagram Google+ Facebook Pinterest Twitter

Thanks so much Melanie! What a darling craft that we can make in plenty of time for the 4th of July.  We’ll see you next month!

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Living Well Spending Less

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The 4th of July was a holiday that I always looked forward to when I was growing up.  My family had a boat and if you want to hear a funny story about our family boat, check out my sister’s Sherri’s post here!

Anyway, our family would always  take our  boat out to Catalina Island off the Southern California coast for the 4th of July weekend.  But before we left, our Dad would buy the boxes of Black Cat or Red Devil fireworks.   After we got there and the sun went down, we could hardly wait for it to be dark enough for fireworks!   Dad had a long plank of wood that he would nail the fireworks onto one end, then he would light it and then quickly push the plank out so that the fireworks would go off over the water but far enough away from our boat.  He then would pull the plank back in, get another firework ready, light it and then push it out again.  It was the best fun ever.

My love of holidays has not faded through the years and it has been so much fun to celebrate holidays now that I have grandchildren!  A couple of weeks ago I got to visit my two grandsons and was excited to make these 4th of July Kids Tee Shirts with them.  This would be a darling idea for the whole family to make and wear on the 4th of July!

The paint that we used for these tee shirts were Americana Acrylic Paints in Primary Red and True Blue.

Pouring the True Blue paint out on  a paper plate, place your child’s hand in the paint.  Make sure each and every finger gets paint on it!

Then try to spread their fingers out as much as you can and place their hand on the tee shirt, pressing down each finger firmly.  Little brother is a little over one year old and it was a challenge to get him to spread his fingers out!

And now it’s Big Brothers turn!

Then with the Primary Red color, paint the flag stripes around the blue hand print.  I love the the roughness of the lines that Big Brother painted!

Now they are both ready for the 4th of July!

Oh, and do you see the little star on Little Brother’s shirt?

Yeah, Big Brother decided that Little Brother  needed a little help and helped him out in the form of a blue fingerprint on his tee shirt!  So we just made a star out of it and think it looks just fine!  Besides what’s more American than a star?

No matter where or how you do your fireworks, your family will be ready in these super easy and fun 4th of July Tee Shirts!

I did pin this from Pinterest but it didn’t have a link to follow through to the original post, but that’s okay because This Pin Still Rocks!

***UPDATE 6/30/14***

A dear friend of mine made these tee shirts with all of her grandkids.  Look how cute these turned out!  I love how different each one is and the bright colors just really stand out!

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Home Stories A to Z, Inside BruCrew Life, The NY Melrose Family,
Living Well Spending Less

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I was at Wal-Mart last night, waiting in the cashier’s line when I saw these!

While we can’t send everyone  PEZ President, (I know you want one) we can offer a President’s Day Free Printable!  Just click on the link below to download.

President’s Day 8×10 Free Printable

Have a great President’s Day and God Bless America!

We are proud to link up with these awesome bloggers! Sassy Little Lady

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