These 4th of July pinwheels would make a great party activity, camp craft, or simply summer rainy day fun!

Related Posts: Summer Party Games, Watermelon Carving, Luau Bingo Game

4th of July Pinwheels to Print	Stars and Stripes 4th of July Pinwheel	4th of July Fireworks Pinwheel
Stars and Swirls Patriotic Pinwheel	American Quilt Pinwheel	Red White and Blue Stars Pinwheel

More 4th of July Kids Crafts

Red, White and Blue Pom Poms

4th of July Crafts and Ideas

4th of July Coloring Pages

This is what your final project will look like!

Summer Camp Door Sign Craft Materials List

1 brown foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

1 tan foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

letter foam stickers

circle foam stickers

1 black foam marker

1 brown foam marker

Here are all the materials you'll need—lots of foam stickers!

How to Make this Summer Camp Door Sign Craft

This will be the base of your craft.

Set aside 2 foam sheets in brown and tan.

Draw a wood grain pattern on the brown foam.

Using the brown marker, draw a wood grain pattern on the foam sheet. TIP: If you are unsure about how to draw the pattern, search for images online and copy.

Pick any color combination you want for the circle foam stickers.

Write C-A-M-P on the foam circle stickers.

Have fun decorating your Summer Camp Door Sign!

Spell out your name across the wood sign. Then start decorating the sign with the rest of the stickers. We layered some of the flower stickers. TIP: Lay out the stickers in the configuration you want before removing the adhesive.

Here’s a boy version of the Summer Camp Door Sign.

Boys will probably prefer frogs and other animals to flowers!

I’ve made this tutorial crystal-clear with step by step photos so that even a teenager can pull this together on their own.

Free Summer Top Sewing Pattern

To break her out of her “making pajama pants rut”, I taught her how to make this ultra simple tube top with a simple rectangle of fabric and elastic thread. If elastic thread intimidates you (it did me for a while!), don’t worry about it for another second. Sewing with elastic thread is just as easy as sewing with regular thread. I’d say it’s easier, because it does so much shaping of the fabric for you, so you don’t need to worry so much about cutting precisely.

Even though this project is easy enough for teens, don’t think you can’t whip up a few for yourself! You can finish them in less than 2 hours – more like an hour and a half, tops!

(ooooh… bad unintentional pun.)

What You Need to Make This Summer Top

Fabric (see measuring guide below)

Regular coordinating thread

1 spool of elastic thread

Steam iron

To determine how much fabric you need, print and complete this super-simple measuring guide:

Free Easy Sewing Pattern - Strapless Summer Top

*Disclaimer – If you have a rather busty figure, I’d recommend adding straps to this top!

Strapless Summer Top Sewing Instructions

Step 1 – Sew your rectangle into a tube

Step 1 - Sew a Tube

Step 2 – Hem the top and bottom edges

Step 2a - Press raw edges

To make this super-easy, press the fabric down 1/2 inch, then again another 1/2 inch. Then turn it over and topstich the hem in place with regular thread:

Step 2b - Sew the pressed hems

Step 3 – HAND wind a bobbin with elastic thread

This may seem like a real pain in the rear, but it’s not. You can do it in less than 90 seconds. DON’T pull the elastic as you wind, simply keep it snug but unstretched. Then load the elastic thread bobbin into your sewing machine. Keep regular thread in your machine needle.

Step 3 - Wind elastic thread bobbin

Step 4 -Start sewing rows with the elastic thread

Line up the right side of your presser foot with the hem you just sewed. Now simply start sewing rows around your tube. You will be doing the exact same thing on both the top and bottom of the shirt, so you can start on either end. Make sure that you have the right side of the fabric on top, so that the elastic thread gets sewn on the wrong side of the fabric.

Some sewing machines may have a hard time if you backstitch the elastic thread at the beginning of your row. If so, just start and be sure to backstitch at the end of your rows.

These rows are also referred to as ‘smocking’.

Step 4 - Sew rows with elastic thread

Depending on the weight of your fabric, the elastic thread won’t pucker much at first. Don’t worry about this – a little steam iron magic will take care of it when we’re all done.

Step 4 - First row of elastic thread

Step 5 – Starting a new row of elastic thread

You are going to sew 5 rows of elastic thread on both the top and bottom of the shirt. Along with your hemmed row, that will be six stitched rows each.

Some people prefer to cut their thread and tie it off on each row. I prefer to keep it all one long piece of thread, to minimize any future breakage. To make sure that there is no pulling between the rows, pull the fabric away from your presser foot about 3 inches and then put it right back down under the presser foot, lined up along the previous seam. This will give it just enough slack to prevent puckering where you don’t want it to pucker.

Step 5 - Start a new row of elastic thread

One bobbin should be just about enough elastic thread to get through 5 rows. But if you run out, no worries. Just wind a new bobbin, start sewing where the old thread left off, and make sure you tie the ends together on the back of the fabric.

Tip - Start new bobbin

Continue sewing rows until you have 5 with the elastic thread.

Sewing with elastic thread

Step 6 – Repeat elastic thread rows on the other end of the shirt

When you are done with one end, it will look like this:

Step 6 - Finished one end, do the other

The back of the rows will look like this:

Wrong side of elastic thread rows

Do the same on the other end of the tube top.

Step 7 – The fun part – steam the elastic and watch it pucker!

When you’re all done, fire up your steam iron. Do not touch the thread with the iron! You simply need to hold the iron right above your elastic thread smocking and give it a few shots of steam. Your elastic will pucker right before your eyes.

Step 7 - Steam Away!

Step 8 – Look cool and sip some iced tea in your new summer top!

Free Sewing Project - Easy Summer Top

Summer Top Variations

You can also make this top with a completely different look by omitting the bottom smocking rows and wearing it with a belt. Adorable!

More Teen Crafts

More Teen Sewing Patterns

Easy Bulletin Board Decorating Ideas

Recycled Crafts: T-Shirt Surgery

Easy Friendship Bracelets

But I do have one trick up my sleeve that I know you will want to learn – and that’s how to make one of those sliding knots so that you need no clasp, and so that the bracelet is adjustable for any size wrist. I learned this knot in college as a rock climber under it’s other name, the Double Fisherman’s Knot. I’ve also heard it called a Chinese Sliding Knot.

Either way, it’s one of the most handy knots you will ever learn to make – because the beauty of this knot is not just that it is adjustable, but also that the more you pull on it, the more it tightens itself.

How to Tie a Sliding Knot

How to Tie a Sliding Knot Diagram

The sliding knot diagram is easy to follow, but it can get a little tricky if you create the knot loosely and then tighten it sloppily. My advice: be really careful about keeping all the strands in place as you tighten it – trust me, it will save you plenty of headaches and tangled cording later.

Make a friendship bracelet with a sliding knot

Here’s a picture of the sliding knot in action on the back of the braided friendship bracelet.

What You Need to Make These Easy Friendship Bracelets

• Leather lacing (in at least three colors for the braided bracelet).
• Six wooden beads with bead holes big enough for the leather lace to fit through (for the beaded bracelet).
• You can also use colorful nylon cording instead of leather for either of these friendship bracelets.

For the beaded friendship bracelet, first cut the end of the leather lace at an angle, which will make it easier to slide on the beads. Then simply tie a regular knot, slide on a bead, and repeat until all the beads are on your bracelet.

Finish off with the sliding knot.

Cut the leather lacing for easy beading

Easy Friendship Bracelet with Beads

For the braided leather bracelet, knot together three strands of leather laces. Keep one of them longer than the rest on the top end, because you will use it to tie the bracelet off.

Braid the laces, then tie another knot to keep the braid together. Then simply clip off two of the three stands near the knot as shown in the first photograph below.

Finish off with the sliding knot.

Braided Leather Friendship Bracelet

Easy Braided Leather Friendship Bracelet

Be sure to check out all of our camp crafts and teen crafts while you are here! One that is hugely popular is this nightlight made from Mod Podge and a recycled plastic drink mix container.

This homemade smoothie recipe is healthy and totally kid-approved.

When it comes to getting kids to eat healthfully, it’s not always easy.  Dot and I got to experimenting a while back and ended up making some awesome soothies.  She likes them so much that we went through quite an experience one night when she kept asking for “foovies,” and we had no idea what she was saying.  Now the whole family calls them foovies, and we have them all the time.

Related Pages: Non-Alcoholic Drink Recipes for Kids,Watermelon Recipes

There are tons of ways to make smoothies, but we like our version, and it’s even pretty healthy:

• 3/4 cup yogurt (we like fruit or vanilla)
• 3/4 cup frozen berries or fruit
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/2 banana

Everything in this yummy smoothie recipe is pretty healthy.

Blend the smoothie ingredients until...well...smooth.

I just recently tried freezing some of the smoothies in these popsicle molds I got from Tupperware, and they are a HUGE hit.

Smoothie popsicles are awesome!

I don’t know how kids feel about Anthropologie, but us adults sure seem to swoon over their artistic decor and design! Drool! These bottles are not hard to make – and certainly cost tons less than the $88 – $128 that similar seashell bottles are selling for on the Anthropologie website! They would look so pretty on a windowsill or decorating a bathroom counter. And with a shell, a little art clay, and a simple bottle, your kids can make a whole set of them to give to any beach loving friend or family member!

Anthropologie Inspired Shell Bottle Toppers Craft

Related Pages: Beach Crafts, Stick Crafts for Kids, Christmas Sugar Cookies

Original craft inspriation from Anthropologie:

Anthropologie Shell Bottles

They have actually used metal to seemingly weld the shell to the top of the bottle. Since that’s a technique that’s a little out of reach for most of us, I’ve found it’s easy to recreate the look using polymer clay instead.

Seashell Bottles Craft Materials

You’ll need a glass bottle with a cork stopper. I got mine on Amazon and at Hobby Lobby.

A seashell

Black polymer clay like Fimo or Sculpey

E6000 glue or glue gun

How to Make Decorative Seashell Bottles

First, use a tiny screwdriver or other object to poke a small hole in the top of the cork. It only needs to be about 1/4″ to 1/2″ deep. This is going to partially stabilize the shell on the top of the cork while you work. So you may have to adjust the depth or width depending on your shell. This doesn’t need to be perfect and it can wobble a bit. The polymer clay will really end up holding it all in place.

Make a small hole in the cork bottle stopper

Now glue your shell into place on top:

Gluing the shell into the cork

Polymer clay needs to soften before you can use it. This would be a great thing for little hands to do! It’s kind of hard at first, but after a while it gets more mold-able. Start taking small pieces of the clay and pressing it around the base of the shell and cork. It really doesn’t need to be all that pretty, just do a lot of pressing on all sides to ensure the whole thing gets covered and is holding the shell tightly in place.

Adding polymer clay around shell and cork

It’s kind of up to you if you want to cover the bottle opening (making it impossible to open later) or just covering up the cork to the bottle top. It also depends on your bottle style – you can see that I covered up one, but not the other. Since these are primarily just for decoration, it didn’t really matter to me. If you want to put something inside of the bottle (sand, more tiny shells, etc.), you can do that before you seal up the clay around the opening for good.

You could actually be done at this point if you want to. But I preferred a smoother texture on the finished bottle than I was able to get with pieced together clay. So I took another chunk of clay and flattened it out to a thin, small pancake shape. I was able to then wrap that around the clay to give it a smooth finish. It still looked pieced together on the back of course, but that doesn’t matter to me because I’ll just be displaying it on a wall shelf.

Smoothing out the polymer clay texture

Wrapping it around the cork:

Wrapping the Clay around the finished shell bottle stopper

And here’s a closeup of the two completed seashell bottles:

Closeup of Shell Bottle Toppers

Remember, this is Day 4 of Twleve Days of Gifts Kids Can Make! 4 down, 8 more to go!

Related Pages: Healthy Pasta Recipe for Kids, Applesauce Recipes, more Summer Watermelon Recipes

Chips and Watermelon Salsa

Watermelon Salsa Ingredients

This is a mild and sweet salsa with a really fresh taste. I used onion and garlic powder to add flavor that wasn’t too overpowering for the kids. If I were to make it for adults, I would substitute fresh minced onion and garlic instead. If you have really juicy tomatoes, this salsa can get pretty watery because of the watermelon. So you may want to strain it just a bit when it’s completed. Putting watermelon in the recipe is a great ‘selling point’ – my youngest very picky eater was so curious that even she was willing to try it (to my absolute amazement!).

6-7 Medium tomatoes, diced (Preferably fresh from the garden!)

1/2 Banana pepper, finely diced (about 1 tbsp)

1 cup Watermelon, diced (Don’t squish it! Keep it a little chunky.)

1 Lime

1/2 tsp Onion salt

1/4 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Onion powder

1 tbsp Garlic powder

Dash of chili powder

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Red wine vinegar

Chopped parsley or cilantro to taste

Combine tomatoes, banana pepper, and watermelon in a medium mixing bowl. Microwave your lime – whole – for 30 seconds. This releases the juices amazingly well. Squeeze the lime juice into the bowl and try to get as much pulp into the mix as you can. I cut the pulp off with a knife. Add the parsley or cilantro and mix well with a spoon.

Sprinkle the rest of the dry seasoning ingredients and vinegar on top and again mix well. There’s no need to puree or mush the ingredients together – the watery tomatoes and watermelon take care of themselves. Like I said earlier, you may even need to strain it a bit.

While you can serve this immediately, it tastes even better if it can sit overnight in your fridge!

Check out all of our easy and kid-friendly recipes while you are here!

While these are great summer drink recipes for kids, I’m going to be pulling this page out again later for Christmas parties and for New Years Eve drinks for the kids, too!

Related Pages: Easy Summer Kids Recipes, Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes, Summer Birthday Party Games

Check out all of our kid-friendly recipes while you are here!

Related Pages: Recycled Kids Crafts, Flower Crafts, Leaf Crafts, Acorn Crafts

Be sure to check out all of our nature crafts on Craft Jr.!