While shopping for supplies for our Fourth of July Block Party, I stumbled upon some adorable Firecracker centerpieces. They had glitter! Ribbon! Pompoms! I mean, the tackiness level was so over the top I simply had to have them. Then? I saw the price tag. I didn’t need them that badly — not even at 40% off. Then I had one of those dangerous thoughts…
I could make this!
And as my husband will tell you, the lag time between idea and execution is negligible in my world.
Supplies:
- cans, jars, wine and water bottles – labels removed if possible (you can soak them in a sink of warm soapy water for 10-20 minutes to make this easier) and plastic trimmed down.
- 6″ wide burlap
- Ribbon
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Scissors
- Wire cutter (I used a Leatherman multi-purpose tool)
- White and Gold pipe cleaners
Arrange your cans, bottles, and jars into groups. Since my inspiration piece was a tiered trio of fireworks, I arranged my cans and jars by size into a similar cluster. I also made stand-alone pieces from a mason jar and a wine bottle — because hey, I already had my craft box out. So why not?
Some of the cans or bottles were not tall enough for the look I was going for — so I stacked and secured them together with hot glue.
Use the hot glue gun to secure the burlap to the jar, can, or bottle. I used a strip down the side to start, then rolled the vessel down the strip of burlap. Then I cut the burlap and secured it with another strip of glue.
If your can/jar/bottle is wider than 6 inches, you can wrap the burlap up around the bottle. Or you can just use the burlap to cover the label area. Depending on the burlap and any design on the bottles, you may have to wrap the bottle twice.
Then? Have fun decorating with ribbon! You can keep it simple or go nuts. The more festive the better, right?
You could stop here and just use the burlap and ribbon wrapped jars as a vase or candle holder. Or you can add some sparkle!
To make the fireworks, use the wire cutters to trim the gold pipe cleaners into 3 equal pieces (approximately 3-3.5″ long).
Place 8-10 of these strips at the end of the white pipe cleaner, then wrap the white cleaner around the cluster. (For fuller appearing fireworks, use 10 strips).
Then bend the gold pieces into your desired shape, folding some of the “legs” over to hide the white.
Cut to your desired length, then place in the decorated can or bottle. To keep the firecracker from flipping around, you can fill the can with popcorn, rice, sand, or even (unused) cat litter.
The result? A fun (cheap!) and easy display that adds a little flair to your 4th. (See what I did there?)
Happy crafting! And Happy Fourth of July!
