Patriotic Starburst Bouquet

Celebrate your patriotism with this red, white and blue craft project. This festive bouquet makes a great quick and easy Fourth of July decoration or the perfect outdoor picnic table decoration.

Materials:

• STYROFOAM Brand Foam:
  • Sheet, 1" x 12" x 36"
  • Stars: 9" x 1/2", one; 6" x 1/2", one; 4 x 1/2", three
• Clay pot, 5"
• Wood dowels, 36" x 1/8", two
• Multipurpose acrylic sealer
• Acrylic paints: white; bright red; denim blue
• White dimensional paint
• Satin varnish
• Metallic red shredded Mylar
• Paintbrushes, 3/4" and 1/2" flat wash
• Serrated knife
• Five wood skewers
• Disposable palette
• Paper towels
• White, thick craft glue
• Transparent tape, 1/2" width
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Craft knife
• Sea wool sponge
• Paraffin or candle stub

Steps:

1. Apply sealer to clay pot and let dry. Paint clay pot, excluding rim, and wood dowels white. Paint pot rim blue, extending color 1" to inside top. Let dry. Sponge paint white portion of clay pot with blue, let dry, and then repeat with red (refer to photo).
    
2. Insert a wood skewer into edge of each foam star at center bottom to use as a handle while painting. Insert opposite end of skewer into foam sheet while paint dries. Paint stars as follows: one 4" and one 6", red; one 4", white; one 4", blue.
    
3. For flag pattern on 9" star, paint two left points blue and three remaining points white (refer to photo). Use tape to mask off eight white stripes on star, continuing pattern onto edges and back. Paint unmasked white portion of star red, creating nine red stripes. Let dry and remove tape. With white dimensional paint, paint seven 5-point stars on blue field. Squeeze paint in center of each star and pull out to points with bottle tip. Let dry thoroughly.
    
4. Apply varnish to clay pot, stars, and wood dowels. Let dry.
    
5. Using a utility knife, cut one each of following lengths from white wood dowels: 12" dowel (flag star); 8" dowel (large red star); 11 1/2" dowel (blue star); 8 1/2" dowel (white star); 6 1/2" dowel (small red star). Replace skewers in stars with wood dowels as indicated and glue.
    
6. Wax serrated knife with candle stub or paraffin. Cut pieces of sheet foam to snugly fit clay pot. Layer and glue foam inside pot. Arrange stars in pot, gluing wood dowels into foam (refer to photo). Glue shredded Mylar, covering top of foam.
    

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For more project ideas, please see styrofoamstyle.com.