Salty Fireworks for the 4th!

What better way to kick off summer than with friends, family, parades, great food and a fun and salty project for the kiddos? This one is super fun and easy and can likely be pulled off without an extra trip to the store. The best part?

Salt!

We certainly don’t recommend busting out the Salinity Finishing Salts for this little gem. Save those for the neighborhood potluck. Now that you’re well versed on the differences between various salts, you probably have some extra table salt lying around. Use that instead. Your pocketbook and your dinner guests will thank you. These sweet little salt-burst fireworks will make great party decorations, place cards or fridge art. They do need to dry overnight, so best to tackle this one a day or two before your celebration.

What you’ll need to make Salty Fireworks:

• Table salt (a few tablespoons will do)
• Food coloring or watercolor paints  
• Black construction paper
• A dropper or straw
• White school glue
• Water (to dilute the food coloring)
• Old bedsheet, table cloth or newspaper for easy clean up
• Cookie sheet to catch the salt

How it works:

1. Cover the work surface with an old bedsheet or newspaper. Better yet, do this one outside! Food coloring can stain and glue can be annoying to clean up.
2. Dilute food coloring in water in two small, separate cups. A little goes a long way - a few drops of food coloring in ¼ c. water should be plenty. If using watercolors, dilute with enough water so that it “drops” off of the brush.
3. Have kids draw firework starburst designs (or heck, whatever else they feel like drawing!) on the black paper.
4. Portion the table salt out into small cups or jars and have the children use their fingers to sprinkle salt liberally over the glue. Really make sure the salt covers all of the glue.
5. Pick up the paper and shake the excess salt off into the cookie sheet (can be reused on the next go around).
6. Use a dropper (a straw can easily be made into a homemade dropper by cutting off a 5 inch piece and folding over the top inch or so to regulate the flow - “pinch” the fold to drop - “let go” to let it flow) to drop color onto the salt. A paintbrush can work as well, but be sure the color is dropping off the brush, as painting will disturb the design. The colored water will pool up around the salt, but that’s okay. DON’T SHAKE IT OFF! It will dry and puff up and will look very cool. Promise.
7. Set aside to dry and use to decorate with Independence Day Pride! Use as place cards, party decorations, postcards, fridge art and more!

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