SUMMER Crafts and Creations Archives |

Polka Dot and Plaid 4th of July Printables, for Celebrations/Cookouts

June 18, 2012 By Laura 6 Comments

Free printables for you!

2021 NOTE – WE’RE SORRY, BUT THE FILES TO THESE PRINTABLES ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE. 🙁

I have been having fun designing some 4th of July printables to share with you, to add a fun red, white and blue themed touch to any cookout or celebration you may have planned, with family and/or friends. (Or, you can even print the cute Bitty Pennants out and string up in your home!) These are the little details that make hosting a gathering so fun to plan, and also the details that impress your guests, and make them smile. So I hope you like them! I tried to design them with simple direction right on them, to show you how easy they can be to prepare. But I will give you some printing tips, at the end here as well, after you look at the previews of the printables in this post. But first . . . . . .

*IMPORTANT NOTE: *Do NOT save the images of the printables you see below,but rather use the download links after the images at the end, for the full size printables. What you see here are just low resolution previews, and not suitable for printing.

I must say, I think these Bitty Pennants are adorable! I gave them some tabs, so they can be folded right over some thin ribbon or string, and then just secured with a little piece of tape. If you choose to download the pennants, please note that you will need both Part 1 and 2.

These wrappers, designed for cupcakes, could possibly also be used around the bottom of those short clear acrylic cups, filled with fruit treat ideas like these.

How cute would these little cards be, sitting tent-like on your food table in front of each dish, letting guests know what’s on the menu?

Lastly, these cards I actually designed last year, but decided to offer them all to you again. They are a bit bigger cards, and print as a full 8.5 x 11 sheet. All you need to do is cut on the solid line, and fold on the dotted. You can hang them to spin on strings, put them tent like on the tables, or slide them under a glass table top. They are like birthday cards for America, and really remind everyone the reason for celebrating, and the gift that our freedom is.

Printing suggestions: I recommend printing any or all printables at least on some good cardstock, as opposed to regular printer paper. Be sure for each download you choose of the links below, that you choose the correct orientation for printing, as well as your highest quality printing setting! Also, if you’d really like to get vibrant colors closer to what you see on your computers, try printing on matte photo paper.

With that, here are the download links, for the actual full-size printables. Just click on the link, and when the image comes up, right click, and ‘Save Image As’, to where you will be able to a location where you will find them on your computer. (Again, do not save and print the images above, or they will look terrible, and waste your ink and paper.)

Bitty Pennants-Part 1

Bitty Pennants-Part 2

Cupcake Wrappers

Dish-Name Table Card Tents

America’s Birthday Cards

I hope you enjoy these, as well as your celebrations of fun, food, family and friends!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!

*******End of Post*****
This long single image below for Pinterest pinning! : )

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4th of July Celebration Table Printables – Free!

July 1, 2011 By Laura Leave a Comment

Happy long 4th of July Weekend, Everyone!

I designed these two 4th of July folded, 2-sided card printables this morning,
for our tables this weekend, and I am happy to share them with you!

free July printables

Above is just a web-sized sample for you to see, only.

(Printed version will be sharp looking. ; )

To download the full resolution 8.5″ x 11″, click here! >> You will also find others there you may like.
** But read and follow directions below first!**

Do not make the mistake of just printing out the image that comes up at that link > It is a low resolution image and will print fuzzy.
To print the full resolution image:
1) Click the GEAR WHEEL in the upper right hand corner
2) Select ‘Download Zip File’ from the drop down menu, and download it.
3) Find the folder under your downloads, and open it.
4) Print what you want.

Select the LANDSCAPE orientation, when *printing out.

*For sturdier cards, consider printing on heavier card-stock, rather than ordinary
printing paper, and/or laminating the cards if possible, after cutting.

Fold on the dotted line. – – – – – – – – – – –

Cut on the solid line. ____________

ENJOY your printables, AND your long holiday weekend!
Feel free to share or PIN this!

Keep it safe, Peeps!!

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COOL AMERICANA | Red, White and Blue Detail Ideas for 4th of July Cookout

June 26, 2011 By Laura 8 Comments

We’re talking about red, white and blue detail ideas for your 4th of July cookout bash, today.

When the 4th of July falls on a day of the week, that makes for a long weekend, Americans all over the country often either host or attend a good ole’ fashioned all-American cookout! It’s the summer bash of the season, when families and friends get together, have good summertime eats, and make fond memories together that they remember for many years.

If you’re planning on throwing an All-American bash this summer, here’s just a couple of detail ideas, that will color your party Red, White & Blue, and remind everyone how happy they are to be an American, and have loved ones to celebrate with!

americana-red-white-blue-ideas-cookout
If you’ve got a patio table with an umbrella, you may or may not be able to relate to the annoyance, of that pole sticking out of the middle of the table. Ours is black, which is not the most festive of colors in my book. It’s also a hindrance to the photos I’m trying to take, of the spread, or the loves ones gathered around the table. If you need the umbrella to block the sun, there is no getting rid of that pole! But I did think of a way to dress it up, and make it an asset to the party decor! I picked up cheap red, white and blue bandanas, and wrapped them tightly around the pole, making the most of the remaining corners to make a nice bow, and pulling the bottom corner to overlap the bandana below it.

americana-red-white-blue-ideas-cookout-1
An AmericanFlag bandana can be wrapped around the handle of pitchers, adding a little more festivity, and added grip to that handle.

And what about red, white & blue striped ice, thrown in some refreshing ice water! I picked up some star shaped ice molds at Michael’s Arts and Crafts, and using red and blue Gatorade, and plain water, the kids filled the molds *1 colored layer at a time, freezing each layer in between. *TIP: To get even layers, do this pre-test: Fill one a single star in the mold with water, and then suck it up with a medicine dispenser. Check out the measurement of the liquid that filled the star, and divide it by 3! That’s how much of each color you’ll need to fill the stars evenly.

You’re welcome. : )

americana-red-white-blue-ideas-cookout-2
Try tying 3 colored straws together, to make another American-style detail. You could use pretty ribbon, but I loved the rustic touch of gardening twine.

americana-red-white-blue-ideas-cookout-3 This was the coolest surprise. Eventually, as the star-striped colored ice melted, it tinted the water light blue! I loved it! But to slow the process of your colored Gatorade stars melting right away, be sure you fill a COLD pitcher, with ice-cold water, and then throw in a tray or 2 of plain ice cubes. On top of the plain ice cubes, add your star-striped ice.

americana-red-white-blue-ideas-cookout-4 We also experimented making solid-colored stars with just a little food-colored water. Consider making plenty, and throwing them in with your cooler of cold drinks, for your guests.

If you ask us, nothing makes a good time better, than hanging out & having fun with people you care about, really great food & drinks, and great all-American music, chatter, & hardly laughter in the air.

Make your 4th of July celebration memorable, with a few simple details.

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American Pinwheels

July 1, 2010 By Laura 9 Comments

We had some guests down a couple of weekends ago, and while they were here, the kids and I got to making pinwheels. O.k., in the end, it was mostly me really working on them. They needed to be fine tuned, to work properly. Making this quick little craft was on my agenda, so I already had the supplies. The kids who visited us each took one home.

Ours has served mostly as home decor, since then, being the time span between Memorial Day weekend, and the 4th of July. But today we took them down to the sea shore to really test drive them!

They worked alright!

The kids even ran like the dickens with them, to really get those pinwheels spinning.

I was impressed with how fast the kids could run, with flip flops on, on rocks no less!

Well, maybe except for {O}. I’m going to be honest here. My girl runs like a girl! Even when she has brand new sneakers on, that are supposed to make you run faster than ever, right? ; ) She has the daintiest run I have ever seen. But you know I love her. Running fast isn’t everything!

Well, maybe to this one, it is. He is another story. {S} is definitely the runner of the family. He runs, and runs, any chance he gets. Sometimes, when he shouldn’t. To see him walk, when he really wants to run, is so comical. (Well, to me as his mother, who knows him better than anyone else on earth.) It takes everything he has within himself, to keep himself from running. He truly needs to concentrate on every single step. This is my boy who probably shoots an average of 1,000 hoops a day. He really burns it up. Look at that pinwheel spin!

Making these is really so easy. You start with square sturdy / heavy weight-ish paper. I found American-themed 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper at, where else?, Michael’s Arts and Crafts store. I was thrilled there were several patterns, with different patterns on the back sides. Can you say perfect?! I can. I did. I bought lots.

If you don’t know or remember the specifics of how to make a pinwheel, (as I did not) you can follow some general directions here. I had my heart set on making some real Mack-Daddy pinwheels, so we started out using the full 12 x 12 sheet! But guess what? They didn’t work. Hey, I’m no engineer. 12″ was too big, too floppy, too much. That’s why I ended up crafting by myself in the end, fixing them all! You think I’m going to let one of my crafts fail? Heck no! People talk! These babies were going to spin like the dickens, and no one was leaving until they all saw it happen!

In the end, we had a few 9″ ones, and a few 7″ ones. They all worked. I do have a tip or 2 though.

TIPS

• When you are making them this big, and cut the paper from each corner of the square toward the middle, it’s important to really stop 2 to 2.5 inches from the center, with every cut. What’s more, I also took about a 2″ inch square of paper from the scraps, and sticky tabbed it good to the center of the back of the pinwheel. This really gave it some better re-enforcement, and spinning power.

• Also, I used sticky tabs, when bringing every right-side corner to the center of the wheel, between every layer. That makes it a lot easier to hold it together until you put the pin through anyway, but again, it gives it a flatter surface in the middle to spin better. We used push pins, and 1/4″ dowels, sticky tabs and square heavy paper.

The kids will be taking their American Pinwheels, and Liberty Shakers, to the parade and the fireworks this weekend.

We’ve got a full agenda for the long holiday weekend. A good mix of fun, relaxing (lol, we try but we’re not so good at it), celebrating, and of course…working around the homestead. There will be SO much to share with you, when all is said and done! What are YOUR family plans this 4th of July weekend? We’ d love to hear how you plan to spend it! Be sure to have fun, and stay safe!

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