"Aha" Moment-Maybe?

When last I left, I told you I was still trying to come up with some new ideas for 4th of July. I took a few minutes and went back over some of my Pinterest pins. I pinned this a few days ago before I had completed my decorating because I almost always use cloches in my living room decor and I was hoping to add some new life to the one on the coffee table. 

If you look closely, you can see some vintage sparkler boxes...and, I liked that but, for whatever reason, vintage sparkler boxes are something I don't have in my stash. So then I thought I could just use current sparkler boxes but, the few places I have been since I thought of this did not have individual boxes of sparklers. They were included in very large assortments of all kinds of fireworks and even I am not buying a bunch of useless ( to me ) things for the sake of a vignette. In reality, probably no one who sees that vignette between now and the 4th of July would even notice them. Now I know I could probably find them somewhere as the holiday gets closer, but I also didn't feel like going on a shopping hunt so, I started to think of what might be my next step.

And, as usual, I end up on Google. I searched 'free images of vintage sparkler labels' and somehow, some way I end up here.

I printed out the labels and thought I might be lucky enough to have them fit on large paint stir sticks with just a few simple cuts but, the sticks are just a bit too narrow so I am using some wood pieces I found at $ Tree and going to bring out my trusty friend, my miter saw. I haven't used it in awhile so we'll see how it goes. 

Several hours ( and a loonnngggg ) phone call with daughter #1 ) later...

Luckily I remembered how to use the miter saw-there really are a LOT of knobs to turn and doodads to adjust...and in no time, I had the pieces cut. I'm glad I ended up using this wood because it is honestly just about the thickness of a box of sparklers and once the label is on, it looks pretty authentic.

The labels that had dark edges got a coat of paint before I decoupaged but the ones with the neutral looking edges just got put on the raw wood. The "green" box probably could have used a coat of green paint but there was NO way my OCD self was going to add more green to anything I was using as a 4th of July decoration! Lol

I used a simple coat of ModPodge under the image and didn't go over the top because I didn't want to give the finish any kind of a sheen. I really wanted them to look like old, somewhat faded packaging...and they do.

They didn't go into the cloche exactly as I wanted so I might play with them more tomorrow but, for now, here is where four of them landed.

And the other three...

For a project I was so excited to try, you would think that I would have had more definitive ideas of where I would use them but, since everything is already decorated, I didn't want to start taking things apart. I'm sure I will mull on this for awhile and inspiration will strike-or not. Lol

While I was on Pinterest, I also saw where someone had hung a basket of greens and flags from their rod on their kitchen cabinet. Since I have one and I only have one towel hanging there right now when there are usually two, I was a bit bothered by the empty space. And, since I already had everything else needed, I threw this together real quickly. I think it will work better when my grand dog goes home as this is kind of the area where she gets her treats and she keeps bumping into it. In any case, it took care of the empty space. Lol

I'm off to clean up after all of this fun but I'll be back. I can't promise I'll have any better inspiration but I do have more decor to share. Stay safe and stay tuned.