4th of July Craftiness: Coffee Filter Sparklers

I’m not sure where I came across the inspiration for this craft.  It’s something I found a while back and mentally noted for future reference.  Like when I was planning activities to entertain the kids while we were visiting family in Alabama!  I crammed as many art supplies as I could into one bag so we could work on some fun projects for the 4th of July.

When cleaning out the top of my spice cabinet I found an almost full pack of filters from our old coffee maker.  Woo hoo!  We could do the coffee filter sparklers without a trip to the store for supplies.  I was surprised that we actually had these.  You see, we’ve had several filter-less coffee makers since the one that required required these paper wonders so I’m not sure how old they are exactly.  Let’s just say that the top few were a tad yellow…

Supplies

Red, white and blue pipe cleaners

Coffee filters

Watercolor set with paintbrush

Cup of water

Patriotic ribbon

Scissors

How to:

Flatten out the coffee filter on a piece of newspaper and paint one side with your choice of watercolors.  The color bleeds through the paper so no need to paint both sides.  Allow the filters to dry completely then fringe the edges with scissors.

Cut 1 1/2″ from a pipe cleaner and set aside the small piece.  Tear a small hole in the bottom of a coffee filter and thread longer piece of pipe cleaner through the hole.  Create a small hook in the end of the pipe cleaner.  Tie patriotic ribbon to the hook then close the loop to secure the ribbon in the center of the sparkler.  Gather the coffee filter up around the ribbon and twist.  Secure the coffee filter by twisting the small piece of pipe cleaner around the bottom of the coffee filter.

Once everything is secure, fluff the sparkler and enjoy!  They make a lovely centerpiece of “flowers” too.

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Valentine’s Day Craft: Heart Garland

It’s amazing what a few pipe cleaners, a handful of beads and some ribbon can make!

I whipped up this super easy Valentine’s Day garland while the boys were napping this afternoon.  When they wake up I’m going to let them make some for their rooms.

Christmas Craft: Crystallized Snowflakes

I’m taking the boys to ICE at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Orlando tomorrow.  Melissa posted this super neat craft/science project that happens to tie in nicely with our upcoming visit to see a Winter Wonderland.  So, I knew we had to try it out!

Supplies:

• 3 pipe cleaners
• Borax
• Boiling Water
• Bowl

I shaped the pipe cleaners into a simple snowflake shape then called the boys in to help me do the rest.   The recipe is 3 tablespoons of Borax to 1 cup of hot water.  We used about 3 cups of water in our bowls to completely cover the snowflakes.  While the water was in the microwave, I let each boy measure out 9 tablespoons of Borax into a glass bowl.

They poured the water into the bowl and began stirring.

Once the Borax had dissolved we wedged the snowflake into the solution.  Our snowflakes were big enough to be supported by the edge of the bowl so no additional support was required to keep them up off the bottom.

We waited 24 hours and this is what we got:

How cool is that?!