Fourth of July Decor

Each year I add to our 4th of July porch decor.  This year I made pennant banners and a flag painting.  I have wanted to make pennant banners for a long time and after finding a GREAT tutorial at Your Homebased Mom, I made 6 in just one afternoon.  Leigh Anne created VERY easy to follow directions and I love the results.  I used more fabrics than Leigh Anne did, simply because I had 1/4 yds of a variety of 4th of July fabrics left from another project.  You know, use what you've got and all that!

My second project was a flag painting using my kids hand and feet prints.  They had a great time making this wonderful keepsake.  I lifted this idea too, from Beth at Sewing for Sanity.  I used a 22 x 28 artist canvas for 2 reasons -- first,  I had a pretty large space to full and secondly, my son's feet are pretty big! 

Here are my two artists, usually my son, at 12, is reluctant to participate in my crafting endeavors, but he even let my daughter paint his feet for the project. 

 And finally, a view of our completed porch for the festivities.

Linked to It's A Blog Party
Tatertots and Jello
Itsy Bitsy Paper
Home Stories A 2 Z
Skip to My Lou

Cupcake Tuesday - Patriotic Cupcakes

I make these cupcakes every 4th of July and they are always a big hit. 

Patriotic Cupcakes

1 package vanilla cake mix

1/2 c applesauce

3 eggs

1 c water

1 1/2 c (about) small fresh blueberries

1 c fresh cherries, pitted and halved

Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese

1 c confectioners sugar (more to get consistancy you prefer)

1 t pure vanilla extract

Patriotic cupcake liners and sprinkles

Preparation

1.  Preheat oven to 350*.  Line muffin tin with patriotic cupcake liners

2.  Combine cake mix, applesauce, eggs and water on low speed for 30 seconds.  Increase to medium speed and beat another 2 minutes.  Fold in cherries.

3.  Diving batter evenly into 24 paper lined muffin cups.  Drop 5 blueberries on top of the batter for each cupcake.  Do not mix or press the blueberries into the batter.

4.  Bake 18 - 20 minutes, until lightly browned.  Cool to room temperature.

5.  Beat cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy.  Spread frosting on tops of cooled cupcakes (I used my 1M star tip and pastry bag).  Top with red and blue sprinkles of your choice.

Linked up to Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade. 

Oh, Say Can You See....July 4th Inspiration

It's been a long time since I have had the chance to get in my craft room and be creative.  For the first time in our married life, I am hosting not one, but two 4th of July celebrations at our house.  We typically spend the day at my inlaw's pool, patiently waiting for DH and FIL to get home from the restaurant so we can have our own celebration.  This year the pool had to be totally redone and is not open yet and we are in the process of relocating our restaurant, so we get the chance to do something a bit different this year.  There is sooooo much inspiration for 4th of July decorations online that it was difficult to choose my projects, but I finally narrowed it down. 

This wreath was inspired by Homemade Mamas.  I made two of them, one for each set of windows on our back porch. 

Side tablescape on the back porch.

These pinwheels were inspired by Leanne at Organized and Decorate Everything.  Her step by step directions made this a very easy to do project. 

Linking up to the following parties:

Censational Girl - Stars and Stripes Party

It's A Blog Party - Fourth of July Party
New Nostalgia - Fourth of July