DIY Wooden Firecrackers

July 4th is one of my favorite holidays...I like summer and popping firecrackers of course.  During my long and much needed vacation from work I did a little craftiness that turned out to be better that I had anticipated!

 

my mom sent me a picture for an idea to make firecrackers from wood and we decided to start on it immediately...since it was July 2nd.  She had some wooden fence posts left over from a new fence that she had jut gotten put up and that made this project super cheap and easy.

 

We wanted to make more, but didn't have enough time before the holiday so I guess I will have to go ahead and start making them for next year!

DIY Wooden Firecrackers

You will need:

• wooden post or dowel rods (I used fence posts)
• spray paint or other paint and brush
• scrap piece of rope
• wood glue
• tape for taping off edges
• miter saw or other saw for cutting posts

Optional:

• glitter or other embellishments
• wooden stars and wire
• Cricut or other die cut machine
• paper for letters
• Modpodge and brush

Okay, so lets get started!  First of all, you will need to cut your wooden posts, dowel rods or whatever you decided to use for your firecrackers.  I used a miter saw, but whatever you had that will cut your wood will be fine.

Cut the posts into three different sizes to make a set.  We picked 12", 18" and 24" and also made a smaller miniature set with the leftover posts after cutting the others.



Then, just because they were a little rough on the edges and had been sitting outside for several weeks, we sanded all around the edges to make sure that we wouldn't get any splinters! Ouch!



Miss Priss didn't want to go to bed so she stayed up and helped us too! :)

After cutting the posts, use a drill to put a hole in the top of each one for the 'fuse'.  Make sure that you use a drill bit that is comparable to the size of rope you will be putting in that hole to make your 'fuse' and that you make the hole deep enough that you can put the fuse into it and secure it well so that it wont fall out.

 

Now start taping your firecrackers for whatever design you are going to make. 

There are several different designs that you could pick and you can see a few of ours above, but the ones that I am showing you here are for the blue on top and then red and white stripe below.

After taping, and painting and then taping and painting some more, we finally have our blocks ready to go for sanding.  As you can see, the tape doesn't always work exactly like I want it to, but that is okay because for this set we made it look 'antique' like and it worked out perfectly.

We sanded the edges of the colors where they meet as well as along the colors themselves to blend in the stripes and the bleeding paint.  the one on the left has been sanded down and the one on the right was the original paint job before sanding. 

 

See the difference?  The colors are not as bright, but the lines blend together better.

Cut three pieces of rope and fray the edges a little bit...you only have to do this on one side, but when I cut the rope, it frayed itself a little anyway so both sides look frayed.  Also make sure that you leave enough room for it to be pushed into the top of the post and still have enough of a 'fuse' hanging out the top.

Using wood glue, or whatever glue you prefer...put some glue into the holes that you have drilled on top and place the rope into the hold.  I pushed down and held the rope in place for a bit to make sure that it was getting all the way into the glue at the bottom of the hole.

You can then use a lighter to burn the tops of your rope to make it look like it has been lit already and to keep them from fraying any more.  The kind of rope that we used didn't really look much like it has been lit, but it did keep it from fraying so we decided to go ahead and do that to each one.

Design them however you would like.  We used some Modpodge and glitter on a few of ours.  My mom painted the letters on this one below, but I don't have as pretty of handwriting and so I would rather cut them out on my Cricut and Modpodge them on that way...either way would look great!

I have also seen some with wooden stars painted and attached with wire to the firecracker...I love those!

 

There you go!  I bet you never thought you would make homemade firecrackers...and that it would be so much fun!