A Little Red, White, & Blue!

Happy Wednesday everyone....or should I say Happy Rednesday! I've been wanting to link up with Lil for Rednesday for a few weeks now and finally got the chance! Today I'm sharing my dining room table decorated for the 4th of July (one of my favorite holidays)! I started by clearing everything off  the table and then I started brainstorming! I really don't have much in the way of Americana decor, so I had to get creative. First, I remembered dragging home a box of Americana themed items I used in my old first grade classroom. I had my son go to the shed with me to find it and drag it out! It contained mostly bulletin board items, but I did find a couple things I could use....which you will see in a bit! First I want to share the candle holders I spruced up in a little red, white, and blue! Here is what I started with. The vases were left over from my son's graduation party and came from the Dollar Tree. I scrounged through my scrapbook paper and was thrilled to find this blue star paper along with some red and white. The denim is an old dress from my scrap pile that I used to make some stars.

First, I cut the white sheet of paper in half and then cut strips of red with my paper cutter.

I used a glue stick to glue the red stripes on the white paper.

I then taped one end to the vase and wrapped it around.

It is taped together for easy removal. By the way, I am a tape snob....it has to be Scotch brand....period! I am an office supply snob in general.....it's the teacher in me! LOL! The stripes don't line up perfectly on the back but  that's ok!

Next, I cut a strip of the blue sparkly star paper and taped it the same way around the top of the vase.

 Here is the final product. Not bad for free! Sorry about the quality of these photos. My camera has been acting crazy lately!

The blue star you see the candle holder sitting on was cut from the denim scrap you saw earlier. I stuffed it in a $1 stuff a bag sale at one of my favorite consignments a while back and knew it would come in handy some day! Here is a photo of the star. I cut three of them.

I placed them on top of my red and white checked table runner (a Goodwill find from several months ago) and started playing around with what to place on top. I used several of my milk glass vases again. They are so versatile. I had some paper stars in my box of old classroom decor that I put to use as well.

I also had a little of this wired star garland that I used in a couple of the vases. 

They remind me of fireworks!

Also in my box of school stuff I found this adorable teddy bear. I had forgotten all about him! I think one of my kids won him in one of those skill crane games years ago. Anywho, he fits perfectly in my Little Red Racer wagon that I borrowed from another area of the house. There were a couple paper flags in the box so I taped one to one of my red and white paper straws for the teddy to hold.

Here are a couple shots of the whole table. 

This runner is really long and completely covers the length of my table. 

My dining room is small and it is difficult to get a good shot of the table. Sorry about the glare...the sun was shining when I took this a little while ago. Florida has crazy weather though and now it's raining!

So, what do you ladies think? I know it's simple but I was working with what I had. I think it turned out pretty cute and it will do for now. 

While I was digging through stuff, I did come across this fabric that I had forgotten about. I am thinking of turning it into place mats. They wouldn't look good with this table decor because of the colors, but I may make them for next year. There are two different styles and I have 6 total. They would be a little larger than traditional place mats, but I think they would work well.

I have one like this hanging in my classroom near the flag. My mom quilted it for me years ago...:)

Well, I hope you enjoyed my 4th of July decor! Be sure to hop on over to Lil's blog, Cottage Sweet Cottage and check out all the red being linked up today!

I'm also linking up with Diann and Linda for Thrifty Things Friday...:) Be sure to check them out as well!

 I love using what I already have and creating something unique. Have a blessed afternoon my friends and as always, thanks for stopping by!

Until next time.....