July 4TH Balloon Pop Garland

Here is an idea that really POPS!  I created this balloon pop activity for kids to partake in during your 4th of July festivities.  All you need to create these for your little brood are small toys, candy, glitter and star shaped confetti. 

Here's a tip:  Create a funnel using the top of a water bottle.  Just cut with a pair of scissors and place the balloon around the bottle opening and fill!

Using clear balloons, I filled each one with my 'filler' and then blew them up and tied them around a length of twine.  You can hang the balloons up and make the garland.  Another idea is to attach to straws or small sticks just for fun.

The fun part is getting to pop each balloon.  Make sure you supervise little ones with this part.  You simply take a sharp pin and POP!

This is such a fun and interactive twist on the average party garland.  You can fill a balloon with so many different items and use this idea for other celebrations! 

{July 4th Round-Up} Affordable July 4th Crafts and Ideas

You might notice a few cosmetic changes happening on my blog, since I'm a one mama show, that's got me pretty busy right now.   As I continue to rebuild the blog to make it prettier and more fab for ya (like the cute social media buttons over there ---->), I still want to provide you with some easy peezy projects for the upcoming July 4th holiday!  Here are a few ideas I've created from past July 4th celebrations I've hosted.

 Make an easy and affordable decorative centerpiece for your July 4th tablescape.  Decorate white pillar candles from the dollar store with star shaped blingy stickers and place in an inexpensive glass vase. Create an elegant floral piece by adding blue glass vase filler, red floral wire in a vase and submerge and orchid or another bloom to the vase.

Make Red, White and Blue ice cream cone cupcakes!  Bake cupcakes in ice cream cones and top with patriotic frosting!

For a festive place setting, use a paper rosette as a sleeve for sparkler sticks! Simply make a small paper rosette, attach a 2" circle to two sparkler sticks - you can also add a bit of embellishment....I just punched a smaller circle to a washi tape covered thumbtack and stuck it into the center of the circle.  Adhere the circle to the rosette with glue dots. 

Make a patriotic fruit pizza with the kids with sugar cookie dough, vanilla frosting and berries!

Make simple paper lanterns patriotic by attaching a blue fringe tassel to red and white paper globes!

Create a mini bunting using red, white and blue streamers.  I made this by cutting the streamers into 6" cuts and folding accordion style, then pinched and glued one edge together towards the center to create a semi-circle bunting shape and then attached by folding over the top of the bunting to a length of twine.

 End your July 4th celebration with a BANG.....or at least a little sparkle.  Set up a sparkler station on a bar cart and place in decorated pails and baskets.

 

You can find some of the July 4th printables in this post in my Etsy shop.  

Be sure to keep checking back for more updates to the blog and creative ideas for your parties and celebrations! 

Save this board to Pinterest for later!

{Recap} Spectacular July 4th with Oriental Trading

I hope you all had a GREAT 4th of July holiday with your family & friends.  I celebrated this year with a festive backyard bbq that was outfitted with a little modern chevron swag from Oriental Trading.  I am happy to be a part of the Oriental Trading Blogger Community.  I was allowed to select a few products of my choice from one of my favorite party goods suppliers.  Last year I designed this Chevron and Ombre Stars inspired July 4th printable collection.  So, when I saw all the new Chevron products that now are available from Oriental Trading, I jumped right on it.


I set up an outdoor dining area for our small group of guests using the chevron plates and bouquet boxes.  I placed a length of striped fabric that I had on hand as a runner and created a patriotic focal point with my centerpieces.  A menu from my printable collection was placed at each place setting along with two sparklers for evening festivities.  Bottles of root beer were customized with printable bottle labels and I placed paper straws into blue rocks glasses that I found at Dollar Tree.

(btw - I never ordered paper plates from Oriental trading before, but let me say that these were very sturdy and held up well!!!)

I loved the chevron bouquet boxes.  I created height by placing these on the tables and filling them with shredded paper to anchor a small flag and yarn pom poms (you know I can't do a party without them), my Mini Diva made corkscrews out of pipe cleaner to give the effect of fireworks shooting out of the box.  I embellished each box with a strip of washi tape and a rosette finished with a party dot from the printable collection.

I wanted to add a lighting element to the table for later in the evening. So, using pillar vases I created hurricanes for candles that I embellished with patriotic stickers.I also used glass rocks and floral wire to accent these floating orchid flowers (they're fake! tee-hee!)

I have a tree in our yard that is half dead because the tree in our neighbors yard is a monster and sucks up all the sunlight.....so our poor Oak tree only gets half loved by the sun.  To take some attention away from those dead branches, I thought it would look nice to add these hanging globe lanterns from the tree.  I added tissue paper tassels onto them because I felt like there was a LOT of red going on with the barn/shed in the background.  I also added a few patriotic hanging fans to the doors of the barn/shed

I set out popcorn for the evening activities and used these chevron treat bags to serve them in.

Here are some more images from the holiday!

I must say that, I was totally pleased with all the products that I used. I've ordered from Oriental Trading in the past as have always been pleased with my products.  Since these products were fairly new in the catalog, I didn't know what to expect, but I was completely happy with everything and my expectations were exceeded.  Thank you to Oriental Trading for providing the chevron party items and helping to make a fabulous July 4th celebration!


"I was provided with either monetary compensation or free products by Oriental Trading for this post .  The reviews of the products are solely my own honest opinion and may not reflect the views of others."

{July 4th Ideas} Patriotic Fruit Pizza

I love fruit pizza and so do the kids! There are so many ways to make them and the possibilities are endless!  Here's a fun idea we whipped up for a Patriotic fruit pizza.

So, in my mind fruit pizza is super easy and kids love it!  All you need is-

• Sugar Cookie Dough - I like Pillsbury, but I'm sure your own recipe is fine.  You can also try puff pastry or brownie mix as your pizza 'crust.'
• Some type of cream to spread over the cookie once it's baked. - we use a vanilla frosting or Marshmallow fluff because the Mini Diva has dairy allergies, but you can mix a pack of cream cheese with sour cream or yogurt and use it as a spread or try my favorite fruit dip.
• Fruit - sliced, diced or chopped- any fruit is fine, but since we're celebrating our great nation's holiday, I went with strawberries and blueberries!

Then follow these steps -

Dee-licious berries!!!!

If you want to try out some more fruit pizza ideas, check out my board on Pinterest - yes, I did create a Pinterest board full of fruit pizza :)

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