Sparkler-Inspired 4th of July Craft

Although I don’t really consider myself a crafty person, I couldn’t resist the urge to take a stab at a DIY project with my 2 year-old, especially as the 4th of July draws nearer. He’s been all over arts and crafts ever since we enrolled him in a toddler program for a few weeks.

We didn’t have much of an art supply in stock but I decided to just go with it and experiment with whatever we could use.  (You should do the same if your kid has the urge to try something new…all it takes is a little creativity!)

I really wanted to make use of all those left-over paper towel rolls lying around the house so came up with a sparkler craft that ended up looking like a patriotic pole from Stephen Colbert’s I am pole book!  Yes – too funny!!

Here’s what we used

• Paper towel roll
• Red, white & blue washable paint
• Paint brush
• Googley-eyes
• Glue
• Red, white & blue pipe cleaners

Here’s what we did

First we painted the towel roll with alternating red and white stripes to resemble the American flag — I let my toddler have a few turns here but it can definitely get messy (although isn’t that what these crafts are all about?)!

While the paint dried for a few minutes, we pulled out the very few pipe cleaners we had left — three to be exact — it was actually just what we needed!

My toddler helped bend and intertwine the pipe cleaners (after playing with them for a few) and we attached the bundle to the inside top of the roll. Then all we did was add the googley-eyes and draw a mouth and voila!

We created our own little sparkler character we called Mr. America (aka I am a pole)!

Although we weren’t quite going for the prettiest craft, we had a great time exploring our creativity and practicing our painting + gluing skills — the exact skills we’ll need for more of these projects in the future!

Have any easy activities planned for your kids this 4th of July?