Simple Crafts

A craft for everything & everything in a craft.

Firework Decorations in Felt.

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One last bonfire night craft to finish off the firework season. My girls and I all had fun making these felt fireworks today with a mixture of coloured felt and seed beads. I had an idea in my head to make them double sided and then make a mobile; I think I still will but these ended up being lovely little sewing projects. Josie, Amelie and I all made simple ones but naturally Maddy really went to town and her version is a triumph!

These are really easy; we made some shape templates using Microsoft Word and then cut out explosions and tails for our fireworks in coloured felt. Then we cut out a rough black shape for them to be pinned to and threaded up a needle in a complimenting embroidery thread colour. Each bead is threaded on to the needle as it comes through from the back and then we stitched back down into almost the same spot. The result is that you can hardly see the thread and there is a lovely sparkle from them. Maddy used really tiny beads and loads of them, which made it looked positively jeweled!

Once all the beads were on and the thread tied off, I trimmed the black to make it fit more closely to the coloured shapes. Maddy did hers really close, which looks better I think. All that is left to do is stitch on a hanging loop and then glue another piece of black to the back to hide the stitches and then these will make lovely firework night decorations for Josie, our November 5th baby, for a long time to come!

Fimo Fireworks! A candle holder jar.

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After seeing something on Pinterest the other day that I loved, I thought I would try making a Fimo fireworks display. I’ve needed to have a go with the new Stardust Fimo Effect Clay for a while and I’ve never played very much with Translucent Fimo Clay either. Since I’m still hoarding jars in an effort to create the biggest ever pile of glass that turns into craft projects, I thought a candle holder couldn’t go far wrong 😉

(I’m going to have to do better photos tonight, it was SO vibrant).

First of all, using a family sizes pasta sauce jar, I rolled up two bars of Stardust clay and stretched it until it was a big rectangle. Then I used a polymer clay blade to make it straight edged so it would look neat and applied it to the jar.

Wash your hands thoroughly (although Stardust leaves behind less colour than black or blue) and use some light coloured waste clay to roll around your fingers and remove traces of clay).

I had one of each colour of the translucent clay and rolled out small flat pieces of each. Next I cut out a star, flexed star and flower in several different colours using Fimo Shape Cutters and some small stars in various colours. Finally I rolled tiny sausages and made myself a pile of tiny balls of clay in lots of colours.

The tricky bit is cutting matching shapes in the Fimo applied to the jar; press the cutters in firmly and wiggle them a little, then peel back the clay shapes. Use a tool to prize them out if needed.

Finally pop the translucent pieces into the holes and use a fine ended tool to make holes in and around them. Decorate those with the little ball, pressing them all firmly into place. With the bigger shapes, it is helpful to push the Stardust clay gently around them to make it all hold together with no gaps.

My jar just has a tealight in it. I think dropping a slightly taller potted white candle inside might defuse the light better and give a richer glow. It looks lovely though.

A quick note about stardust clay; it starts as an odd greenish colour and only goes black when baked. It is filled with mica bits so glitters but these bits can (apparently) be made to look different if you manipulate the clay so they end up all lying in one direction. However, it doesn’t have much to say for itself until you add varnish, at which point it develops a real beauty.

Pom Pom Firework Craft

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We thought we were up against it with this particular craft but yet again Maddy came up trumps, with a little imaginative help from another sister. So here it is, a pom pom craft for Firework Night 😆

One navy blue or black large popm pom to be the sky. Then take some pipe cleaners and twist them into coils around your finger. Push one end into the centre of the pompom and secure it by bending in over the yarn that holds all the strands together. The yarn will help hold them in place. Make a series of them and hang them in a wreath or at the window. Use sparkly pipe cleaners if you have them to hand or decorate the pom poms by spraying glue and glitter on, or stars or even by using sparkly thread wound in when you make it.

If you remember to leave the yarn that ties it together as a long thread, you’ll have a loop to hold it together. We didn’t, so you get Josie’s fingers modeling this quick and fun bonfire night activity. I think with some glue and glitter and sparkly pipe cleaners, they’d look great hanging in a window as long strands of dangling indoor fireworks!

Hama Bead Firework Patterns

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Well, in an effort to get some Firework Night crafts up on the site, we’ve made up a few patterns that we haven’t had time to make for real yet. (I lie slightly, Maddy made up the rocket using real beads, which is why it is quite a lot better than my other ones!) Still, hopefully these will give you a few ideas to get started; hexagons, circles and starts with different colours and patterns would look great. We had plans for a mobile but half term is rushing by a bit.

This one is pretty lovely, done on a large square board. Maddy used gold beads for it which look great – I think the catherine wheel below would suit some gold hama beads too.

Hmmm… I’m not sure about that one really… you could send me your own ideas?

Once you’ve made a heap of stars in different combinations, you might want some tails to swoop about after the explosions.

Try these 😉

You might not know but we have a craft shop which sells the entire Hama Bead range. If you can, do support us while buying your supplies so we can.. ahem… have more time to make better hama bead firework patterns 😉

Fun Foam Firework Night

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This one is a bit of a cheat because I’m not sure how much time for Bonfire Night crafts I have this year, so I’ll just post up a bit of fun that was previously on our family blog.

Photo

These fun foam firework stickers were a perfect bit of crafty silliness last half term. We got some dark blue card and black foam sheets and cut out houses in foam using a hama bead house board as a template. Then everyone decorated them with yellow windows cut from yellow foam and glitter glue and stickers. We had more fun that a group of quite big girls probably should have – but sometimes something silly is perfect 😉