by Auralea Krieger

You will need: Terracotta pot | Red, white, and blue paint | White gel pen |Small paint brushes |Scissors |Tacky glue |Card stock with red, white, and blue patterns |Thin wire |Wire cutters |Flowers |Floral foam

While looking for 4th of July decorations online, I stumbled upon some cute flower pots full of paper rockets. So I tried my hand at making this little shabby chic style Independence Day decoration. You can use a clay pot or anything you have on hand for a twelfth scale garden container.

Step 1: Begin by painting a miniature terracotta pot white. I used white spray paint.

Step 2: Paint the rim and the inside blue with a small brush.

Step 3: Use an even smaller brush to paint two red stripes. Keep the bottom of the stripe straight and as clean as you can and then use dry brush strokes to rough up the top of the stripes.

Step 4: Use the edge of a folded piece of fine sand paper to scuff up the pot.

Step 5: I used a white gel pen to draw the stars. Don’t drive  yourself mad trying to make the stars perfect. Just draw a line going up, then the two horizontal lines, and then the two star “legs”.

Step 6: Cut your patterns for the rockets. I printed onto card stock and cut a 1 1/4” x 3/4” piece.

Step 7: I ran it over the edge of my ruler to get a curve and then rolled it in a tube. If you want it to be a perfect tube then glue it onto a piece of a wooden dowel in the thickness you desire. If you do it that way, be sure to leave room to glue the wire in the bottom.

Step 8: Cut your circle with curved tipped scissors and then make a cut to the centre.

Step 9: Overlap where the cut is and glue it to itself to make the rocket top.

Step 10: Dip the tip of the rolled paper into tacky glue and adhere it to the rocket top. Be sure to keep the lids seam lined up with the rocket’s body seam.

Step 11: Cut a piece of wire to the length desired and dip the tip into a blob of glue.

Step 12: Place it up inside the rocket on the side with the seam and let dry.

Step 13: Fill your pot with floral foam and some flowers and then arrange your rockets in the pot. Another option is to fill the bottom with curled paper instead of wire and hang them on the porch.

Place by the door or on the front porch and have fun celebrating Independence Day!

Click here to access cutout printables for July 4. Just download to your computer and print out.