As you all know (if you don’t, you must be living under a rock) Pinterest is my go-to place for inspiration when I get wind of a holiday, a party of any kind, or any potential stolen moment of free time that I’d like to fill with crafting.

The 4th July was no different, this time, however, I had a craft-buddy.  My friend Lindsay, a recent SLB/SSA transfer from Houma, LA.  We got together, and attempted to do, what, in theory, we are told, is an ‘easy’ craft, make pompoms.

It’s quite possible we over-shopped, between the two of us we have enough 4th July stuff to have parties for the next 3-5 years (or more!)

However, as you can see, that didn’t go well at all.  We followed Martha Stewart’s tutorial to the letter, however, our pompoms ended up looking more like butterflies than any kind of poms! Linds ended up taking most of her tissue paper home with her and we’ve decided to get together with our friend Shelley at some stage for a proper education on how to make these frustrating little suckers.

Needless to say, we were both pretty deflated, so, after another squizz though pages and pages of Americana ideas on Pinterest, we came up with a few other crafts to do for the ‘social gathering’ (because, again, y’all know, we don’t have parties in this house 😉 lol!)

Firstly, we took some floral stems, wrapped them around a vase to get a circle shape and twisted the ends together.  Then I cut equal lengths of crepe paper in red, white and blue and attached them around the wire (using regular sticky tape that you’d use on wrapping presents).  They were quick, easy, and to hang them up, I bent a floral stem around the sides of the circle to create a hook/hanging point and hung them from some metal loop studs in my kitchen ceiling (I’ve no idea what their real purpose is, but they make great decorating loops).

Next, I took these 3 ingredients and worked on something that I’d fallen in love with on Pinterest a while ago.

I’ve never before used Mod Podge, but it’s a clear-drying glue that most definitely did the trick for me.  I cut strips of tri-colour crepe paper (some in long strips, some in small strips) and glued them to the inside of two different sizes of jars (twelve total) and popped some battery-powered tea lights inside them.

They are luminary jars for lighting up along your garden path.  Ok, Linds made a good point that it doesn’t get dark here until almost 9pm in Houston during the summer, but we left them running until after midnight so they were seen by some people…maybe?

Who knows! All I know is, they looked pretty – the ‘fake’ tea-lights glow a little too orange for my liking, but they still looked good!

My centre-piece was up next, I took an old clear vase and spray-painted it white, used some florists foam as a base inside the vase to stick my decorations in to (we tried just stuffing plastic bags in there, but that didn’t work, neither did the foam you stuff cuddly toys with).

Lindsay picked up the pinwheels for me, the Flags I got in Target (3 for $1), the glittery stars at the front, were 5 for $1 in the 99c store.  The ribbon, I pinched from Lindsay – but I think she picked that up in Hobby Lobby.  The most expensive bit was that crazy straggly piece at the back from Hobby Lobby, even at 30% off it was still a few quid.

When it was put together, Lindsay remarked that it looked a little bare around the bottom, so she stuffed some red and blue tissue paper in the bottom and that small adjustment, really brought the whole thing together and made it POP!

We also had a couple of foodie inspirations from Pinterest too, Lindsay put together this great ‘stars and stripes’ inspired fruit kebob platter.  It’s simple, but striking and, importantly, it’s healthy and delicious!

Lastly, something else I’d fallen in love with on the Pinterest boards, a wholly American holiday treat, that was an absolute necessity for our 4th July celebration, was a ‘smores station’.  I thought it was adorable, so I threw together a quick version of it before the guests arrived.

I found some red, white and blue, star-shaped marshmallows which I stuck on skewers, with little bowls of graham crackers and chocolates.  I don’t know if you’ve discovered the wonder that is Ghirardelli chocolates, however, those squares are the perfect thickness for smores and, the ones with caramel in them add another delicious element to smores.  Next time I’m going to try the mint version!

It was lots of fun, I enjoyed the crafting – pompom calamity aside, it was easy, quick to do and it all looked great, together with well placed bunting from the Dollar store and some nice paper lantern lights, our house was well and truly kitted out for a fun 4th July party!