Give your 4th of July table a little splash of red, white, and blue with this colorful centerpiece. We colored rice with red and blue food coloring to give it this festive look. You can add this to any area in your house or it would be perfect for your party table!
Supplies for 4th of July Colored Rice:
- white uncooked rice
- rubbing alcohol
- food coloring, red and blue
- paper towels and a tray
- clear vase
1. Divide your rice into 3 equal parts. Place 2 of the parts into 2 baggies, one for red and one for blue. The third part you’ll leave plain white.
2. Add your food coloring to each bag. Depending on your food coloring, you might need to add more than you think. I used 8-10 drops for each color. I also added 1 teaspoon of rubbing alcohol to each bag. This helps with the drying process of the rice, so it doesn’t get wet and gooey. You can make this without the alcohol, you will just need to act fast and help it dry quicker, maybe out in the sun.
3. Seal up the baggies and start to mix it around with your hands. Make sure it gets spread out evenly over each piece of rice.
4. Set out some paper towels on a tray. Open each bag and spread it out on the tray to dry. Avoid them touching, it’s not fun if they mix. It shouldn’t take too long, and you can use a spoon to help fluff them and speed up the drying process.
5. Once the rice is dry and set, add it to your clear vase. You can create all kinds of layers. In three chunks like mine, or with a lot of little red and white layers with one large blue layer at the top to make a flag!
Now add your flare for the top. In the first photo, I added an American flag in the center. Or you could place some of these fun Patriotic Paper Lollies! Or below, I added one of these Pipe Cleaner Sparklers to turn it into a giant firecracker!
This craft could be turned into a decoration for any type of celebration. Create this centerpiece with your country’s color or even with colors from a different holiday.
I have made this before and you can use a couple of squirts of hand sanitizer instead of alcohol,it works great because that’s what I had available!
I’m having a “Going Away” party for my 19 yr old daughter before she gets deployed to Afghaninstan next month so I was looking for low cost craft/centerpiece ideas… I LOVE THIS!! However, for some reason my red rice is starting to turn black… H-E-L-P!!
What a fun way to celebrate. Although, I’m sorry about your rice. I’m not sure why it’s turning black. There must be some science to it! Hmmm. Or it’s just a bad batch of store bought food coloring. Maybe try mixing white milk to see if it’s the coloring. Or did you mix the blue with the red by chance? Then it might be turning purple or gray.
What a fun, easy idea. I’m all about that! I love when you can make something simple and it gives such a HUGE impact. I’ve pinned this to my Patriotic party pinterest board since it makes such a great party favor. I think I’m going to try this and put it on my patio table for the holidays. Thanks so much for sharing.
This is a great project. The theme ideas are endless really. Thanks for sharing. I featured this on my blog: http://koolbeenz-blog.blogspot.com/2011/06/gallery-of-featured-crafters-5-with.html
Feel free to grab my Featured Button if you like, if you don’t already have it.
@pril
So cute!
Thank you I was looking for the perfect thing to fill my jars and I think this is it. YAY!!
So glad to have found your website! I am having a red, white and blue birthday party for my children at the end of this month! What great ideas!!!
So fun! And made with stuff we all have!
How adorable. I’ll be sure to do this with my class this week. Thanks for sharing:)
Erin – First, if you choose cook with this colored rice, I suggest making it without the rubbing alcohol. Second, I’ve cooked pasta that had food coloring on it that we’ve made, and it simply cooked out. The pasta came out plain.
So give it a try and see what happens. Let me know how it goes!
What does the colored rice look like when you cook it?
cute! ….would be cute make a few different widths and heights and put candles in them.
Thanks for the idea! I saw your firecracker idea and thought it would be cute for our church Fourth of July party. However, they were looking sad all alone in a jar. This will definitely pump them up for great centerpieces!
I LOVE simple crafts. They are the only ones I will try. This is so cute. I’m going to make it this weekend with my daughter!
Marie: I love this centerpiece. It is so cute. I am an editor with FaveCrafts and I just put up a Firecracker Centerpiece that your readers may enjoy. You can see it here at http://www.favecrafts.com/Fourth-of-July/Firecracker-Centerpiece