Seasons > American Independence Day > Home Decorations > Fourth of July Decorations for the Dollar Store
3 Ways to Decorate with Star and “USA” Cut-outs
These star and “USA” cut-outs are small, so give them more impact, by combining them rather than using them separately. Hang them as an accent over a blue or red hand towel in the bathroom. Put a basket on the counter with more color coordinated towels, and the whole bathroom is decorated in about 5 minutes. You can add fourth of July accents to a plain basket with ribbons and bows, or paint the rim and handle blue or red. If you want to go all out, stencil stars along the rim and handle like the one in the photo. You can just buy one or two cut-outs and find the perfect place to decorate with it, or you can buy several and put them in several places around the house.
Another way to decorate with these cut-outs is to combine them with a potted plant, whether inside or outside. Hang them on the wall behind the plant, or fasten a wire to the cut-outs, and stick the wire into the dirt in the pot: You can make your own stake from a wire coat hanger. Straighten the wire, then cut it to the length you need, allowing extra for forming a loop. Poke one end of the wire through the hole in the cut-out, then bend the wire in a loop to hold it in place. Poke the other end in the dirt. If the cut-outs are not specifically made for outdoor use, be sure to display them in an area that is sheltered from the rain.
These cut-outs will get lost on a large wall, so look around your house for fairly small spaces to decorate, such as these cupboard doors, or a narrow wall near a door or window. If you can’t find this kind of decoration at a dollar store near you, make your own: Print out a star and letters on your computer as a pattern, then cut them out of thin cardboard, such as an empty cracker or cereal box, or the back of a notepad. Sheets of colored foam work, too. Decorate the cut-outs with paint, patterned paper, or strips of tape and star stickers. Left over Christmas wrapping paper with a candy stripe pattern would be perfect for this. Your kids might enjoy making these as a 4th of July craft.
Even though the dining room is spacious, the wall next to the door is a fairly narrow space--just right for the discs. I took down a wreath that normally hangs there, and displayed the discs for the holiday. You could also hang them on a door as a wreath substitute. These paper discs fold up like fans, so it is easy to miss them when you are looking for decorations at a dollar store. Since they fold up, they take up very little storage space. On the other hand, since they are made out of paper, they have to be handled with care, because they get torn up pretty easily. This is not a decoration your kids should help with, unless they are careful.
These paper discs make a quick accent for a small space, such as a bathroom. Just open them into a complete circle, clip them in place so they don’t fold back up, and hang them from existing nails, or use “plastitack” or other material for temporary hanging. You can make your own discs by folding patterned paper accordion style, then paperclip the ends together. Wrapping paper that comes in rolls will be long enough (the width you cut will be half the diameter of the finished disc), or tape colored 8 1/2 x ll paper end to end until is is long enough to make a circle. These do tend to buckle into a cone instead of a flat disc. One way to solve that problem is to glue the open discs onto paper plates, or paper circles (If storage space is not an issue.)
2 Ways to Decorate with Paper Discs that fold like folding fans
4 Ways to Decorate with Balloons
3 Ways to Decorate with Streamers
5 Ways to Decorate with Christmas balls
If you plan to have guests over, balloons outside will let everyone know where the party is. They dress up the place for a cookout, too. Tie them to a banister, or tie them to a stake that is pushed into the dirt of a potted plant.
Helium balloons from a dollar store are about a third of the price that they are from a party goods store. If you get regular balloons filled with helium, they lose their buoyancy in just a few hours, whereas mylar balloons can stay afloat for as much as a month, so you can buy them a week ahead instead of on the day of festivities, when things get hectic.
Balloons add instant party atmosphere inside, too. When they are used as a centerpiece, tie them above eye level so that everyone can see each other across the table as they eat and talk. Dollar stores also sell sparkly weights to tie the balloons to, so they don’t float away. You can certainly find free ways to anchor the balloons, but these weights do add a festive touch, like sparklers on the table. And it would be hard to find any other centerpiece that costs $3--try to buy flowers for that price!
Combine balloons with a large flag hung on the wall to decorate a really big space. The flag by itself fills the space well enough, but adding balloons just adds another layer to the decorations and makes it more interesting to look at. If you don’t want to bother with helium, then blow up a bunch of regular balloons and fill a large basket with them. If you want to minimize time spent blowing up balloons, fill the bottom of the basket with crumpled newspapers or towels, then pile the balloons on top. If kids will be involved in the festivities, blow up enough balloons for all of them to participate in several balloon games.
Sort out the red and blue balls from all your other Christmas tree decorations, and pile them up in a clear bowl, such as this trifle bowl. This makes a festive centerpiece as is, or you can add a pillar candle. If you only have a short candle, it will get covered by the balls, or will fall over if you try to balance it on top. The solution: balance it on an upside down candle stand (for taper candles), then fill in the balls around the candle stand, which will now be hidden, but will give a secure platform to put the candle on. These balls are plastic ones that were purchased at a dollar store, so you don’t have to worry about breaking them if the candle falls over on them. Sometimes dollar stores have left over Christmas balls, so even if you don’t have blue balls, you might be able to find some now. They are easy to overlook, though, so be thorough!
Even if you may decide to to use a different idea for a centerpiece on your dining room table, you can still use the idea to decorate another part of your house, such as the countertop in the bathroom, or kitchen, or even on a table in your foyer. It might look a little random by itself, but add one or two other decorations, and it will make that corner ready to party.
With just a few items from a dollar store, you can deck out your whole house for Independence Day, without costing a fortune.
It can get tricky trying to drape streamers. One way to take the guess work out, is to pre-measure where to fasten the streamers--use a length of string the width that you want each swag to be, and put a small tab of tape on the surface (wall, railing, etc.) at each end of the string. Keep moving the string over and adding another tab of tape. Fold over one end of each tab of tape so you can pull it up to fasten on the streamer. That way you don’t have to struggle to hang onto the tape, and measure and cut the streamer at the same time. Now stretch your arms out to measure each length of streamer (or use another length of string) before you start twisting it, so it will hang down the same distance as the swag on either side. Whether or not you have a spiral banister, you can always find places to drape streamers--over doors, under windows, from the ceiling fan, etc.
Weave streamers through banister railings for an unusual way to decorate with streamers. With one hand on each side, it goes surprisingly quickly as you hand the roll of streamer to yourself through the bars and back again. This technique also uses up less streamer than the traditional twisted swag. When the holiday is over, you can re-roll the streamers without too much trouble, and save money next year. Just mark the zip-lock bag or storage box with the location it was used--since it is now pre-cut, it may be too short to use in other places.
Make a giant flag on the side of your refrigerator for practically nothing. Cut strips of streamer to fit, and tape them to the top and bottom of the refrigerator. Begin with red stripes on each side of the refrigerator, then fasten one in the middle, next add two streamers in between the middle and end stripes for a total of 7 red stripes, and 7 white stripes (the spaces in between the streamers). Doing it in this order is the easiest way to make the stripes the same distance apart without measuring it ahead of time. Tape a piece of navy blue construction paper in the corner, and stick on star stickers. Of course, if you don’t have these things, you can improvise. I didn’t have blue paper, but I did have a blue napkin. I didn’t have star stickers, so I cut 13 stars out of white paper--I may be a compulsive decorator, but not enough to cut out 50 stars!!
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1.Put 2 or 3 balls and some curling ribbon at the base of some pillar candles to turn it into a fourth of July decoration.
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2.Fasten a few balls onto a plain wreath with florist’s wire, twist ties, or a glue gun. Add a bow to make a patriotic wreath.
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3.Hang a couple of balls from your rearview mirror to spiff up your car for the holiday.
Three more ways to use balls (sorry there are no photos)
Seasons > American Independence Day > Home Decorations > Fourth of July Decorations for the Dollar Store
You can decorate your whole house for the 4th of July, then store all those decorations in a shoebox (with the exception of the candles, Christmas balls, and inflated balloons, of course.)