With the 4th of July just around the corner, I thought it would be fun for R(3) to create a craft to celebrate the holiday. Although we’re not in the US, R is always keen to learn about other countries. First we located the US on his globe and then we spent some time discussing Independence Day, why it is so significant, and some of the ways it is traditionally celebrated. When I suggested we create fireworks for our craft project, R couldn’t get into our paint supplies fast enough!
While deciding the best way to create fireworks with paint, I immediately thought about another art project we had fun with – blow painting with straws. I thought the patterns created by blowing the paint around with a straw would be perfect for representing fireworks.
TO CREATE SPARKLING FIREWORKS YOU WILL NEED:
- Paint (we used red, white and blue for the 4th of July but any colors would look spectacular)
- Glitter (we used red, silver and blue but again, you could use any color)
- Drinking straws
- paper or card stock (we used blue to represent the sky. Black would look fantastic, but we just used what we had on hand).
HOW TO CREATE A SPARKLING FIREWORKS PICTURE IN 3 EASY STEPS.
STEP 1:
Mix your paint with a little water so that it is thin enough to be blown across the paper. I added less water this time than in our previous straw painting project because I wanted the paint to be thick enough for the glitter to stick to it.
STEP 2:
Dip the end of your straw into the paint and then drop the paint onto your page. Now blow through the straw and watch the fireworks appear! Move your straw around to create all sorts of fun patterns and explosive shapes.
STEP 3:
Sprinkle some glitter over the paint. We matched the color of our glitter with our paint colour – so blue glitter on blue paint and so on. This isn’t essential though, and I think the effect of mixing colors would be very beautiful and very much like real fireworks. Now, shake off the excess glitter and admire your artwork!
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I just love it, I’ve just got my results from my level 4 Childcare & I’m continueing with level 5 in September so all of these are a great help. I’d be delighted to receive emails & posts if that suits you, I’m wide open to suggestions even if the country might not go for some!
Many Thanks,
Niamh Bevan
Hello Niamh and welcome to the blog! Congratulations on completing level 4 of your childcare qualification! I’m so happy that you have found my posts helpful. I would be delighted for you to follow by email. You can subscribe at the top right hand side of the page.
What a fun and sparkly idea! The fireworks turned out great!
Thanks Gina!
This looks like fantastic fun…I think we will be making these in the coming days!! Talk soon!
Thanks for stopping by Davina. I hope you have a lovely day on Wednesday! Happy 4th of July!
These turned out too pretty! I wish I wasn’t as scared of glitter as I am! It might open up a world of crafty opportunities for me.
Kristin this makes me laugh! (Sorry!) You would not fare well at our place at all! Glitter reigns supreme. We love the stuff. lol Actually while we were making this project, R created something very interesting using entire jars of glitter. I’m going to blog about it soon.
They look so pretty. I would be tempted to cut them out and hang them some where!
Thanks Heather! Actually I thought I might do just that – perhaps make some bunting on some such thing.
So sparkly – your photos are beautiful! Such a great way to kids to get involved in decorating for the 4th!
Thank you so much Jacquie! It really was a lot of fun.
These turned out great! Love it!
Thank you so much!
would love for you to link these up to The Sunday Showcase! http://www.theiowafarmerswife.com/2012/06/sunday-showcase-playing-with-paint.html
Thank you for inviting me to link up. I’ll pop right over.
It looks awesome! Great idea, thanks for sharing. I will be doing this on tuesday with my daycare kids!
Thanks Tulip! I hope the kids have as much fun as we did. It’s such a great activity.
I love how sparkly these are! The blow painting technique worked really well!!!
Thanks MaryAnne. We love the painting with straws technique. So much fun.
This looks wonderful! I love it!
Thank you JDaniel4′s Mom!
Hi Ness! Stopping by to let you know I featured your Sparkly Fireworks today on The Sunday Showcase! http://www.theiowafarmerswife.com/2012/07/sunday-showcase-patriotic-posts.html
Stop by to grab a featured button if you’d like!
Oh wow! This made my day! Thank you so much. I’m popping over there right now.