Make your 4th of July celebration one for the history books by blasting off your party with these festive 4th of July ‘rockets’; both easy, and fun for the whole family!
‘4th of July Rocket‘ project takes approximately 5-10 minutes per rocket to complete.
What You’ll Need:
- Empty toilet paper rolls*
- Printed pattern sheets*
- Printed rocket top template*
- Scissors
- Glue/Tape*
- Ruler*
- Thin dowel or chopstick*
- Tissue paper (optional)*
*for any of the items with an asterisk, alternative materials can be used. For example, if you do not have access to a printer, you can still complete this project by using plain paper and coloring it. You may also trace the bottom of a small pot (for example) to create the circle for your rocket top. As always, our projects are designed in hopes that you are able to use everyday items from around your house.
Lastly, download and print our FREE “4th of July Rocket Craft Decoration” template, by clicking this link
Step by Step : Instructions
Step 1:
Print our FREE 4th of July Rocket template. First we are going to make our covers for our ‘rockets’. Select any of the printed patterns to start with. With pattern facing down, line up your paper roll in one corner/on the edge of the page. Using a ruler, draw a line across the page. Then cut on your line to make your first rocket cover. Next, using tape (or glue), attached the newly cut strip to your paper roll. Wrap around roll, and tape again. Repeat process for as many ‘rockets’ as you’d like to make.
Tip: In lieu of printing our template, you can always color your own designs on construction or a plain piece of paper and cover your ‘rocket’.
Step 2:
Next, we are going to make the ‘rocket’ tops! First, color the circles/tops from the printout before cutting them out. We ourselves, cutout our circle template and used it to trace and cutout circles on special shiny and glittery paper (absolutely not necessary, but just adds flare).
Tip: Alternatively, you can always use any round/flat surface to make these tops (i.e. the bottom of a flower pot, or an oatmeal canister lid, etc.). For best results circle/tops should approximately be 4″ – 4.5″ in diameter.
Step 3:
Curve the top/circle cutout to create a cone. Tape, glue, (or in our case) staple to keep cone together. Next (and in our opinion the trickiest part of this project), is affixing the ‘top’ to the ‘rocket’. You can either glue around the top rim of the paper roll and stick the top right on and let dry. In our case, we used tape to create, what looks like a castle tower, and stuck our top right on top. Using our chopstick/dowel, we made sure the tape was secured to the top (as best as we could).
Step 4:
Next, we simply held our rockets upside-down, placed our chopstick/dowel (or in our case, we used plastic straws) in the paper roll, then proceeded to stuff the paper roll with a half a sheet of tissue paper; working our way around your chopstick/dowel to try to keep it in the center.
Step 5:
Lastly, you can simply stick these rockets into your front garden, or flower pots. Stick them in a nice vase or jar for a festive centerpiece. Your imagination is the limit. We decided to stick our rockets into a piece of dry foam we picked up from our local dollar store. Stuck the foam in a jug we had, placed it on a festive plate, and embellished with red, white and blue confetti (again, all from the local dollar store) to create this fun table center piece for our 4th of July celebration!
FINISHED!
EXTRA CREDIT:
Here are a few similar projects we found on YouTube, where these crafters put their own flare on this project: