How to Throw the Perfect Memorial Day Pool Party (Part 1- Decorations)

Kick off summer the right way with a Memorial Day bash no one will forget. The first step to throwing a great party is creating awesome decorations. There are plenty of Memorial Day decorations that you can buy from your local party store, but if you want to make this a fun activity to do with your kids, save a couple bucks, and most importantly add a personal touch, check out these stunning DIY Memorial Day decorations.

1. Patriotic Mason Jar Center Pieces

What you'll need
• Mason Jars
• Red, white and blue paint
• Foam paint brush
• Painters tape
• Star shaped stickers

Directions
1. Paint the outside of all the mason jars white and set them aside to dry.
2. After they have dried, use the stickers and painter’s tape as stencils to create a stars and stripes.
3. Decorate half the jars with starshaped stickers and paint over them with blue paint.
4. Align the painters tape on the other half of the jars horizontally and paint over them with red paint.
5. Once the paint has dried, carefully remove the stickers/tape to reveal beautiful white stars and stripes on your blue and red mason jars.
6. You can be creative with these center pieces! Add flowers or candles to create a traditional center piece or go functional and use it as a utensil holder. The options are endless!

2. Red White and Blue Yarn Globes

What you'll need
• Red, white, and blue yarn
• 5" balloons
• Glue
• Water
• Petroleum jelly
• Drying line with clothes pins

Directions
1. Inflate the balloons so they are about four inches in diameter and tie the end.
2. Rub petroleum jelly on each inflated balloon. This will help prevent the yarn from sticking to them.
3. Set the balloons aside and mix two parts glue to one part water to create the adhesive for the yarn 4. Wrap the yarn around your fingers several times without tangling it and dip that hand in the adhesive, completely soaking the yarn.
5. Tie one end of the yarn at the top of the balloon and wrap the rest around in a criss-cross motion. Once the whole surface of the balloon is wrapped, tuck the end piece under another piece and rub the entire surface with more of the glue.
6. Clip the ends of the balloons to your drying line with clothes pins and allow them to dry a full 48 hours.
7. After they have dried, pop the balloons with a safety pin, and remove them from the openings in the yarn globes.
8. Get creative! You can attach these festive yarn globes to string lights, hang them individually by an entrance, or even place them in a bowl over some battery-operated tea light candles!

3. Red, White & Blue Paper Stars

What you'll need
• red and blue star PDFs, printed on text weight paper
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• string to hang

Directions
1. Cut out the squares and fold 5 into triangles along dotted line. Then trim out the center and cut along the dotted lines.
2. Overlap the center points and glue (with the color side out).
3. Then overlap the middle points (make sure the white side is out) and glue.
4. Overlap the outer points and glue (color side out).
5. Repeat this step four times.
6. Arrange star point to resemble a pinwheel, back to back.
7. Glue the center points to create your star.
8. String the stars to hang.

Photo courtesy:
https://www.ehow.com/how_12339979_light-up-fourth-july-patriotic-red-white-blue-yarn-string-lights.html
https://www.onsuttonplace.com/patriotic-ideas-and-diy-projects/