As always, we love to celebrate holidays with easy, fun crafts the kids can make at home. With the summer season upon us, crafting at home is always a fun way to spend the day to beat the heart.
Last year on Good Day Acadiana with Alex Worstell, we got an early start on our Memorial Day celebrating and created a Star-Spangled Wreath and a Red, White and Blue Catapult using mostly popsicle sticks. Both crafts will offer fun that kids of any age will enjoy creating. I like to refer to our children's crafts as creative entertainment!
Here's a clip from the show with Alex:
How to Make Star-Spangled Wreath
The most important thing you will need for this craft is plenty of popsicle sticks! I got the idea from BabbleDabbleDo while searching for some ideas for easy Memorial Day Crafts. I knew I had a good supply of sticks and paper plates already at home so I decided to get crafting!
Other Supplies You'll Need:
- Paper or Styrofoam plates
- Hot glue and/or crafting glue
- Paint and paint brushes
- Ribbon or string
- Pipe cleaners
- Noodles, stickers, pom-poms or other small decorative items
First, depending on the thickness of your paper plates, you may need more than one. If the one's you have are thin, just hot glue two of them together. You can also use regular Elmer's or crafting glue, but keep in mind it make take a bit longer to complete the project.
Next trace a circle in the middle of your plate. You can use a lid to a mayo jar or pickle jar you may have at home. Alex had a great idea to trace a star if you're good a free hand drawing, but I decided to stick with the circle for time.
Then, I cut out the circle in the middle of the plate with a crafting razor and removed any rough edges. Now, paint your plate. I used multiple coats, two or three, to cover up any blotches. Put your plate aside and let that dry.
| While your plate is drying, you can begin to paint your popsicle sticks. I chose six sticks for each color I wanted to add to my patriotic wreath. You can paint both sides of the stick or just one. (Same goes for your plate.) One or two coats of paint will work. As you finish each stick, put them aside to dry. You can use what would have been the bottom of your paper plate as your workspace. Glue a ribbon or pipe cleaner around the outside of your circle. Let that dry. Now that your sticks are dry, begin to systematically glue your sticks to your plate starting from the inside rim of the circle in the middle. Hot glue will definitely be the best choice to make sure they stay in place. Once your sticks are glued in place, you can then add other decorative items like stickers, pom-poms, sequins, or glitter. |  Image by Tracie Ysaguire |
Red, White, and Blue Catapult
Honestly, the catapult looked like fun! I found the idea on Crafts by Courtney and decided to give it a try. Once I made the catapult, not going to lie, I probably played with it more than I should have!
 Image by Mia Barletto |
You will need a total of eight sticks, four rubber bands, and one top to a water or soda bottle. You only need to decorate the top two in your catapult so it won't take long to dry.
As you can see from the image above your stack of popsicle sticks will slide between the other two forming the catapult. The rubber bands will hold them in place. Be sure to keep the rubber bands in the center of the catapult as you wrap them because it may not work as well if they are wrapped on the sides. You can see the side-by-side images from Crafts by Courtney as she made hers.
What I liked about this craft is that it is easy creative entertainment for the kids and it can pair well with a homeschool history lesson for the kids. Even if you are not homeschooling your kids, they can still learn about what a catapult was used for, therefore while crafting they are learning and having fun.
Just look at how much fun Alex and I had as we wrapped up our last segment this week! Not to mention, Scott and Alex ended the show catapulting pom-poms all over the studio!
Happy Crafting Acadiana! |
Searching for more easy, fun at-home crafts for the kids over summer break?
Watch our past crafting segments with Alex Worstell on Good Day Acadiana on their You Tube Channel!
