Independence Day is easily one of my very favorite holidays- I love the patriotic feeling I always get!
And I love all the red, white and blue around :)
Recently I was sent a fun box of American Crafts red, white and blue glittery goodies to be able to create with! For real, this is more glitter than I've pretty much ever had at one time- not the usual around here, and it was so fun! Stephen took the boys overnight for the Father and Sons outing and I got some alone time to make an awesome, glittery, beautiful mess!
When I was brainstorming how to use this fun stuff, I had the thought that I'd like to use some white lights to really show off the glitter! I decided to cut out some simple star bursts to create a mantle fireworks display and I love how it turned out!
I cut a 24" shipping tube in half to create two pillars that I could stuff the lights inside and string across. I had originally thought I could use paper towel tubes, but they aren't nearly strong enough actually. The only white lights I had that didn't have a green cord (I really wanted it to be all white) were these 300 icicle lights- a smaller strand would work better if you have it instead!
I used this awesome American Crafts red and blue glitter tape to wrap my shipping tube. This tape is AWESOME! It really is the coolest stuff ever- I've gotta come up with more uses for it!
Once the tube was glittered up a bit, I poked a few holes in one side with the tip of my scissors to be able to poke a few light bulbs through:
Then stuffed the tubes with extra lights. In order to plug in and still sit on the center of my mantle, I did have to have strands of lights running out the sides of the bottoms of the pillars too, so I cut a little notch to keep the sitting flat still:
On to the fun part! So, I tried to run this glitter cardstock through my Cricut to cut star bursts with... and wow, this is the cardstock to win all cardstock! It is some really thick, quality paper! Even on my deepest blade and pressure settings, I couldn't get a good cut. I finished hand cutting them to have a stencil and then hand cut all the rest. Still, because it is a simple shape, it wasn't a big deal. I love the polka dot blue glitter paper and the red stripes! The corrugated solids were also super shiny and the texture is a great touch anywhere :)
Once I had all my bursts cut and layered, I hole punched them through the middle with my large eyelet size punch and they fit perfectly over the light bulbs! I added star bursts to the lights strung between my pillars and up the pillar in the bulbs poked through- only a few of them needed any adhesive to stay put.
I love how the lights and the glitter work together to give me a little fireworks display on my mantle! I tried to get some pics when the lights were on in the dark...
... and it goes without saying that I am no pro at this kind of photography!
Hopefully you get the idea of how it adds to the neat shimmer :P
I'm loving our patriotic mantle! Recycled a few additions from last year and used a frame from Michaels that I had previously painted red to accent my favorite part :)
American Crafts glitter paper and tape was the perfect thing to create fun patriotic decor with and I think the fireworks turned out so pretty! Simple to make with basic resources :) Don't you just love when you make some new decoration that you end up just really happy with?
This is one of those for me :)
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