In this month's Family Fun magazine, I shared a few easy crafts you can do with or for your kids to make your July 4th celebration even more fun!

These firework favors are made on a toilet paper tube base wrapped with crepe paper. The stripes are created with crepe paper streamers from the party supply store! Fill them with little toys and glow sticks.

Decorate oversized towels to make comfy (and festive) beach blankets! Freezer paper stenciling is a super easy way to embellish fabric. I ironed freezer paper stars onto the towel (shiny side down) and used a soft fabric spray paint, Tulip ColorShot, to spray stripes over the stars. After drying, I peeled off the freezer paper and was left with the white stars! (One big tip about working with this spray paint: store the cans upside down so the nozzles don't clog!)

Make a portable ring toss out of some recycled bottles and cardboard six-pack container. Full instructions are here or in Family Fun's July issue, on newsstands now!

Small embroidery hoops made the perfect rings, but you can also use bangle bracelets if you have them!

Candy kabobs are fun favors that you can prep ahead or a great activity for kids at the party. (Adult supervision is required with the pointy sticks. Pre-pierce the candy for younger kids)

Snipped up colored licorice make fun "rocket tails" and are easy to thread onto the skewers because of their hollow centers.

Straw necklaces are a great party activity. You can pre-cut the straws or let the kids do it themselves. Provide blunt needles, pre-threaded with twine, to your guests. Bonus: with pipe cleaners, your kids can create initials to string onto their necklaces!

Here's one of the necklaces in action! (And a cake pop flag cake. Instructions for that here!)

This loopy necklace was made by using three strings.

Cut 3 pieces of twine, each 5’ long. Knot them together leaving 3” extra for knotting closed later.
String 3 beads onto each piece of twine then feed all three twines through one bead. Repeat.
Add 3 striped beads each on to two of the pieces of twine, and 2 solid beads onto the third twine and pull the strings together so the three-bead strings loop around the two-bead string. Knot. Repeat twice and knot.
Feed all three twines through one bead and then 3 beads each and knot. Repeat.
Knot the two ends together and trim excess.