Try these three projects for Fourth of July

With the spate of glorious weather that’s moved into the region for the Fourth of July, most of our readers will probably want to be enjoying the sunshine, not sitting inside working on crafts.

Keeping that in mind, in this week’s column we offer a trio of suggestions for the Fourth that can be put together outside – in a deck chair or on the lawn – in an hour or less.

First up, make a fashion statement while protecting your face and eyes from the sun by dressing up a straw hat with red, white and blue ribbon and tinsel.

Hats

To make our bow hat, select wired ribbon (at least 1 1/2 or 2 inches wide), tie between seven and 10 bows (enough to go around the hat), then secure the bows to the hat with a needle and thread. Gluing the bows on is an option, but we don’t recommend it because of the heat if you’re out in the direct sun.

The tinsel hat is even easier: just wrap a tinsel garland around the hat, secure in place at a couple of points with a needle and thread, and add a wired-ribbon bow to the back.

A bonus to making these hats is that if you attach the bows and tinsel carefully, with a minimum of thread, you can easily remove the red, white and blue decorations and use the hats for the next holiday.

Star wreath

Our star wreath is the simplest project of all. To make it, all you have to do is add a few bows to a purchased star wreath.

Another option is to purchase a Styrofoam star shape (or a heart, circle, square or other shape if desired) and wrap it with tinsel garland.

We opted for the ready-made wreath as it was less work and about the same price. The wreath cost less than $8 on sale, and the cost of the ribbon minimal at a little more than $6 a spool.

The Styrofoam option would run in the neighborhood of $5 for the form, plus $2 per tinsel garland (we figure it would take three or four to cover the form sufficiently), and the same amount of ribbon.

Round wreath

Finally, our round wreath is made by wrapping a hoop with tinsel garland, adding a wired-ribbon bow and hanging a star-shaped cookie cutter in the center.

We used a metal hoop as a base, but you can also use a wooden, plastic or Styrofoam hoop if desired.

Wrap the hoop with tinsel garland, covering the hoop completely. It took one garland made of larger tinsel and two garlands made of smaller tinsel on the same size hoops to cover adequately.

Loop a length of narrow red, white or blue ribbon through the top point of a star-shaped cookie cutter and hang the cutter from the hoop so that the star is in the center. Secure in place by attaching the other end of the narrow ribbon to the hoop.

Add a wired-ribbon bow to the point at which the cookie cutter is attached to the hoop, and add another loop of narrow ribbon at the same spot to form a hanger for the wreath.

For some additional pizzazz, you can add a plastic wind-spinner (we found some made specifically for the Fourth of July) to the bottom of the wreath and hang it where it can turn freely in the breeze.

Contact Jonetta Coffin at jrocoffin@aol.com.

What you’ll need…

* Straw hat

* Wired ribbon

* Tinsel garland

* Needle and thread

* Ready-made tinsel wreath

* Wired ribbon

* Scissors

* Styrofoam form (optional)

* Tinsel garland (optional)

* Metal, plastic or wooden hoop