A July 4th Prototype

Not too many blog posts ago I wrote about getting crafty for the July 4th holiday. I showed the photo above from Country Living magazine's website.

I bought patriotic ribbon. I scoured ebay looking for vintage streamers, blue crepe paper, etc. I purchased and waited for items to arrive in the mail.(One was coming all the way from England. Oh the irony!)

And after much head scratching and pondering... I came up with the ribbon below! I added a ribbon hanger (yes, I actually got out my sewing box. Gasp!)


You can hang it here.

You can hang it there.

You can hang it just about anywhere! (You'll have to excuse me, I've been reading too many Dr. Seuss books.)

More ribbon and trims were added to the "tail" so my version is completely different...(Plus I used wired ribbon instead of crepe paper) and I could have embellished the top with glitter AND I could have been more precise in my cutting abilities... but for now I am happy with my prototype!

It was harder than it looked to come up with an exact match to the magazine's version. My crepe paper was too wide and too light weight so I gave up and just went for my own design using the ribbon.

Sometimes it just works out better that way!

I've decided this fun souvenir could be the "prize" to the winner of our patriotic contest when we have guests over for July 4th. This year we decided not to have anything big but maybe next year. Gives me plenty of time to work on my craft skills.

I do think they need some fine tuning. A little rusty here!

And I've been saving paper towel and toilet tissue rolls to make these little firecrackers but it is taking forever to use up the paper so I only have three so far. I know, I could just rip all the paper off but where is the fun in that?

Note to self: Need to start thinking about this way in advance.

Maybe I'll start in the winter when the snow is on the ground and I'm longing for backyard barbecues, potato salad and fresh summer corn...ahhhhhhhhhh.

Deeeeeelish!