Shauna's Post: Getting into the patriotic spirits with simple crafts

I love holiday decorations.  I have very fond memories of coming home from school to see my mom put up the fall or Christmas decorations and instantly falling into the spirit of the season.  I feel like holidays like the 4th of July can be fun with smaller or simple decor, which is why I love my sisters crafts so much.  I wanted to keep these crafts family and budget friendly so I used things that I already had around the house.  I made a Patriotic Tea Towel and a Mason Jar Vase with patriotic flowers. 

Patriotic Tea Towel Tutorial.

The star tea towel is such a fun and easy craft you could easily do this with your children...I say your children because I definitely didn't do it with mine.   Haha I'm not quite ready for that type of adventure with my almost 2 year old.

For this project you'll need some type of tea towel, a knife, a potato, red and blue paint and probably a paper plate for the paint. 







First you'll need to cut the potato in half, and then cut out a star.  I used a pencil and drew a star before I started cutting.







  
Then you just dip your star into the paint and stamp.








I washed of my potato stamp and started the red and this is how it turned out.  I really loved the simplicity of it, and how it got me in the mood for the 4th.







And here is the end product.  My boys really love it for some reason.  I can't seem to keep it on the oven door because they always run around the apartment with it screaming "Stars!!". 

Mason Jar Vase with patriotic flowers

For my next project I just decided to do some color blocking on a mason jar, make some paper flowers and set in on our bookshelf.  It's a pretty subtle 4th of July look but I really like it.

To get started you'll need a mason jar, white paint or spray paint, duct tape or electric tape.  For the paint I used a Martha Stewart all purpose paint that was on clearance at Michaels for a buck, but looking back I would have used spray paint. 

 So to start it off poor a generous amount of paint into a bowl.  Make sure your mason jar is clean and dried.  Put a strip of duct take on the jar and dip the jar in the paint. 

 After you've dipped the jar, place it upside down to dry.

 I added some red and blue paper flowers I made to the vase for a patriotic look and I think it turned out great. 





















And here is the finished product, the first thing people see when they walk into our apartment.