No-Fire Sparklers

These festive sparklers are great table decorations but they're also good if you have little brothers or sisters who are too young to play with real sparklers.

We found the red "star" garlands at our local dollar store and the silver and blue at craft store. The classic sparkler is all silver but you can mix it up for fun.

The wooden dowel or roundels came from the craft store but you can find long pieces at the big box home repair stores and cut them to size.

Makes 5 -10 sparklers

You'll need:

• 1-2 "star" garlands
• 1/4 inch across by 10 inch long wooden dowels
• Aluminum foil or metallic ribbon
• Pipe cleaners - metallic if you can find them
• Glue stick
• A little adult help

Equipment:

• Scissors or metal snips

1. Start by cutting the star garland into 10 inch lengths. Put them aside.
2. Next, lay out a 2 x 12 inch strip of aluminum foil for each sparkler. (If you're using metallic ribbon you may have to unroll it. The foil will stick by itself but you'll have to use glue on the metallic ribbon.)
3. Lay the stick at one end of the foil so that there is a little extra foil at the top and bottom.
4. Roll the stick and the foil up tightly and twist the extra foil at the ends. You now have the sparkler's wand.
5. Choose the messier of the two ends to be the top of the sparkler.
6. Gather 6 pieces of star garland together like a bouquet.
7. Using a pipe cleaner, attach the garland in a spray to the top of the wand. There's your sparkling sparkler.