Firecracker and Star Patriotic Wreath

After seeing all the beautiful wreaths out there in blog land, I had to add one to my Patriotic wall decorations.  I'd seen an idea like this using fabric and wood in one of my mother's old instruction books, but since I don't cut wood and I don't sew...I made mine out of fun foam.  Quick. Easy. And Kid Friendly!

I started with 2 pieces of sparkly fun foam in red and blue and one scrap of regular white fun foam.

(Don't you just love how it sparkles?  Just perfect for a firecracker wreath!)

Then I cut out a star shape and a firecracker shape out of card stock.  My star shape is 4 inches in diameter and my firecracker shape is 1 inch wide by 3 1/2 inches long.

I used the template to cut out 5 blue stars and 10 red firecrackers by drawing the shape on the back (non sparkly side) of the foam.

I took 1/2 the firecrackers and added white stripes to it by cutting a square piece of white foam into 1/2 inch diagonal strips.

I took the strips and added 2 to a firecracker by gluing it on.  Then I turned it over and cut off the excess white foam.

I took one silver and one gold sparkly pipe cleaner and cut them into 1 1/2 inch pieces so I had 5 of each.

I used these as the firecracker wicks so I glued them onto the back of the firecracker so they were sticking out on top.

To make the wreath, I used an old 9 inch embroidery hoop.  I used just the outer circle so I could save the inner circle for a different project on down the line.

I started assembling the wreath by gluing the 5 blue stars in a "star pattern" with one on the top and the other 4 around the circle.

Then I randomly put one of each of the firecrackers in the spaces between the stars to cover the hoop.

To make a little bit of "dangly" to the wreath, I cut 24 inches of my favorite Walmart ribbon in red, blue and white.

It was kind of rough, but I layed the three pieces in red, white, and blue order and then tied them into a single bow.  It took some time to get the bow right with all the sides even and it looking nice in the knot, but it eventually came.

And that's my easy, peasy wreath!