Interested in fun, festive Fourth of July decorations without spending much cash? Interior designer and event planner Preston Bailey — whose clients include such A-list stars as Oprah Winfrey, Uma Thurman and Catherine Zeta-Jones — explains how to make affordable decorations with items from any party store:Umbrella Centerpiece
Supplies needed: Beach umbrella, red and white streamers, glue gun, scissors, ruler, skewers, apples
Top of Umbrella: Cut red and white streamers to about 12" long and glue the streamers to the inside of the opened umbrella in rows.
Base of umbrella: Stack up apples around the pole (any kind of apple you like), and use skewers to hold the apples together in place. Arrange the apples around the base suitable to your liking.
Pasta Shell Vase
Supplies needed: Recycled can, glue gun, pasta shells (any shape), paint, paint brush
Tear paper off of can.
Using a glue gun, place a dime sized drop of glue onto any area of can.
Stick pasta shell onto the glue drop.
Continue steps 3-4 until the can is filled with shells (you can glue in any pattern you choose).
Paint the shells using any water based paint or acrylic paint.
Peony
Supplies needed: 5" folded paper napkin, white streamer, glue gun, scissors, BBQ stick or pipe cleaner, tape
Petals: Using paper napkins, cut each napkin in the shape of a petal (repeat four times to create 4 petals).
Center of the flower: Using another napkin, take 1/2 of the napkin and cut into strips to create a fringe effect (only cut down to about 3"). Take a 10" wire and fold it in half and loosely twist it creating a sort of needle shape.
Place hot glue on the top portion of the wire (the needle head).
Take fringed napkin and wrap the uncut part around the needle head (the fringe part should begin to resemble a flower).
Flower: Using the petals created in step 1, tape each petal onto the fringed wire applying the tape at the base of the needle head. Repeat four times to make the petals go around the center of the flower.
Using the glue gun, glue the white streamer beginning at the tape (covering the tape) working your way down and wrap the streamer around the wire to create a stem.
Fruit PlatterSupplies needed: gift box, streamer, tape, fruit, plastic wrap, tissue paper
Line inside of a recycled gift box with red color tissue paper.
Place plastic wrap on top of the tissue paper and staple the edges to secure the plastic wrap.
Using red streamer, wrap streamer around the box and secure the ends with tape.
Repeat step 3, until the outside of the box is completely covered. Organize fruit inside of the box to your liking.