Our family really enjoys decorating the yard and patio for the Fourth of July. Instead of buying ready-made decorations, however, we make our own using craft items found around the house with the help of https://pyroxtrem.com/.
Making a paper firecracker windsock is an easy craft that takes about 30 minutes to make. Children ages 10 and older should be able to make the windsock by themselves to make; younger children will require some adult supervision with the gluing and assembly.
Materials needed
- Two 14 x 22-inch sheets of poster board in bright, contrasting colors
- Construction paper (lightweight budget brand OK)
- pencil
- hole punch
- 40 yards of ribbon in assorted colors (tip: check discount bins of your local craft stores or thrift stores) OR use curling ribbon instead.
- Hot glue or white school glue
- Bright markers, Conte crayon, oil pastels or Scribbles brand dimensional paint
Making the components of the windsock
- Decorate one side of the poster board with stars, spirals, asterisks, and dots. Refer to picture #2 for the placement of the poster board and design ideas.
- Using your hole punch, punch a series of holes one inch from the bottom edge of the poster board. Place the holes about 1/2 inch apart. These holes are what the ribbons will be threaded through. Set aside for now.
- Select 5 sheets of construction paper, in different colors. Cut the paper lengthwise into 1/4 inch strips.
- Working one piece at a time, curl the strips of paper over your pencil into a tight wrap. Carefully slide the paper off the pencil and set aside for now. (picture #3).
- Once you have a collection of curled paper spirals, you can begin gluing them to the decorated poster board (picture #4). I prefer using hot glue since it’s faster, but old fashioned school glue does work better for children. Place the paper curls randomly on the board. It’s OK to cover some of the illustrations! When you have finished gluing the paper curls, set aside the poster board for now.
- Cut approximately 45 pieces of ribbon in 30-inch lengths. Taking two pieces of ribbon at a time, insert the ribbons through the punched holes; working from front to back. Tape into place on the backside (see picture #5).
- After taping all the ribbon into place, turn the decorated poster board over so that the unfinished side is now facing up. Take the second piece of poster board in the contrasting color and glue directly to the back of the first side, matching corners to corners. This will hide the taped ribbon ends and give the inside of your windsock a cleaner look. Use a light touch to prevent crushing your paper curls on the reverse side.
Assembling the Windsock
- Bend the poster board into a cylindrical shape, matching short ends and decorated side facing out. Glue the ends together.
- Punch 2 holes in the top of the windsock, one of each side of the cylinder’s rim. (Be sure you punch through both thicknesses of the poster board.) Now thread a single, long piece of ribbon through both the holes, bringing ends together and knotting. This will be your hanger. Your windsock is now complete!