Here are some fun and crafty ideas for using Red, White & You Sweethearts in your Fourth of July festivities.

First is the Red, White & You Patriotic Shaker. You can find complete directions for this and other easy crafts in the Sweethearts Patriotic Crafts for Kids booklet. Since I didn’t have all the exact supplies, I made do with what I had. I used an empty candy sprinkles plastic jar in place of the flip-top container and 20″ lengths of 1/8″ and 1/4″ wide ribbons, tied in the middle around the metal brad before sticking it through the lid. I tied red, white and blue pony beads onto the ends of the ribbons.

Next is the Folk Art Heart Party Favor. Cut two 3-1/4″ tall x 3″ wide pieces of wool felt (or you could use craft felt if you wish) and a strip 1-1/4″ wide x 9-1/2″ long. Cut a heart out of the middle of one of the panels and blanket stitch with 2 strands of embroidery floss around the opening. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the pattern. Click on the image and then print out the full-size pattern.) Click here for a great tutorial on blanket stitching on felt from Future Girl Craft Blog. (Variation: cut a heart out of a contrasting piece of felt and use blanket stitch to appliqué it onto the panel.) Blanket stitch one panel to each long side of the strip. Wool can sometimes be stretchy. If the strip stretches out past the edges of the panels, just trim it down to size. Put a box of Red, White & You candies inside the pouch.

Or use a small bag of Red, White & You Sweethearts to make a quick and easy Mini Favor. Simply cut a 6″ to 7″ square out of patriotic fabric with pinking shears or a wave rotary cutter, place the bag of candy in the center, gather the fabric around it and tie with a 1/8″ wide ribbon. Tie mini pony beads onto the ends of the ribbon if you’d like.

And finally my favorite, the Red, White & You Candy Dish Rug. You will need two circles of wool felt. I used a lid to trace around. My circles are 7-1/4″ across. That’s about the smallest circle that will handle four hearts. You can cut a larger circle and give more space in between the hearts or enlarge or reduce the size of the heart pattern for a different size rug if you wish. Check your candy dish to see what is a good size for you.

Next trace four hearts onto fusible web (click on pattern image at the bottom of this post for full-size heart pattern that you can print) and fuse polka dot cotton quilting fabric to the hearts, cut them out and fuse the hearts to one of the wool circles. Note: when you fuse the hearts to the wool circle, use the wool setting on the iron, you don’t want to scorch the wool.

Blanket stitch (click here for Future Craft Girl’s blanket stitch tutorial) around the hearts with two strands of embroidery floss, then blanket stitch the second wool felt circle to the bottom of the rug. (Variation: use solid wool felt hearts, no fusible web necessary, and embroider Red, White & You messages onto the hearts before embroidering them to the circle.)

Why not gather together some Red, White & You candy hearts, red, white and blue fabric, scrapbooking papers, beads, trims and embellishments and see what you’re inspired to make …

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