Everyone loves a parade. Finale.

We're almost done making our parade!  We've finished all the instruments and all that's left are a few extras - to really make our parade fun.


First, we'll need something to direct the parade with.  Every marching band leader needs a baton.


You'll need:
a skinny dowel
colored duct tape
small styrofoam ball
mod podge or white glue
glitter


Take your dowel and cover it with the colored duct tape to make stripes.  You'll have to cut your duct tape into a skinny strip.  You could also just paint it - after all, it's wood - but last time I toted the excellence of decorating with duct tape, so I followed my own lead here.

Stick your styrofoam ball on the dowel.  (You can slide it off and put some glue in the hole then replace it for added security)

Cover your ball with glue or mod podge.  Roll it around in glitter to match.  Sprinkle glitter over the top.  Glitter-fy that thing.

And march!  March!  March!  

What's a parade without spectators?  Well, ok, so it's still fun without spectators, but whether you've got extra marchers or people cheering from the sidelines, you'll need flags to wave!


You'll need:
felt scraps
hot glue gun
skinny dowels
ribbon
scissors


Now, I don't have pictures of this process, because, well, I totally missed the boat on that one.  BUT, it's easy, and you can figure it out.

FIRST, take a scrap of felt and fold it in half.  Cut a right-ish triangle out so that the straight side is against the fold.  When you open it, you'd have two triangles connected on the straight edge, get it?  Just run hot glue along that fold, stick your dowel in there with the end sticking out just a little, and sandwich your dowel between the triangles.  Spread a bunch more hot glue in the inside of the triangles and glue them together.  Then cut shapes out of the scrap felt and glue them on the felt triangles to decorate them.  Finally, cut some ribbon at different lengths that matches your felt and just tie them in a double knot around the top of the dowel.  Secure this with some hot glue.  It'll add just a bit of whimsy.

This one's my favorite.

 mini likes them all.

And that's pretty much it.  Except you'll need something to put everything in.  The box part of the "Parade in a box".

You'll need:

a box

That's pretty much it.  Just find something that everything will fit in and there you have it!  You'll probably want handles so it's easy to transport.  That way you'll have a parade with you whenever you need it.

I used an orange crate I found at the thrift store.  I wanted to add handles so I cut some strips of this thick vinyl stuff and folded it into thirds to make it sturdy and thick.  Then I just used my handy staple gun to staple the ends onto the crate.

And poof!  An easily carry-able parade box.

A little note:  You may want to add some fun things to wear.  Every parade has hats!  Maybe a few scarves or something?  Make it fun!

 And now?  Turn the crate over and you've got the perfect seat for all the onlookers!

Have a fun summer parade!  

If you've missed the initial posts for creating your parade, you can learn how to make all of this:

DIY Wind Instruments - bugle, harmonica

DIY Percussion Instruments - drums, xylophone, maracas

*Be sure to check just below for all the fun parties I link to!