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not martha

to make : party crackers

party crackers



cracker steps

the stuff
I gathered together colored construction paper, tissue paper, snaps, craft glue (Sobo and Tacky Glue are both good) and goodies to put inside.

the snap
this is the middle part of the snap where the friction strip is

cut down tube
the length of the interior tube needs to be shorter than snaps

leave enough length for the snap
I cut the roll to give the snap about three inches (1.5 per side) extra length

measure roll
I made the roll wide enough to fit some of the things I planned to put inside

extra tissue paper lenth
making sure the ends of the snap have plenty of length on either end of the tube - the tissue paper outside needs to extend past the snap because it will be gathered later on -- more than in this photo

beads of glue to secure to tube
I put some glue on the roll

roll on
and rolled on the first layer of tissue paper - notice how much room I left at the end, I was guessing but it worked out well, I left this much at both ends, it was pretty much the width of the tissue paper


add glue where tube in underneath
I tacked down the first layer of tissue paper with some beads of glue, I only glued as wide as the tube, the ends will be gathered later and this (hopefully) will make it easier

second layer of decorative tissue paper
I rolled on the second layer of tissue paper - which was slightly shorter to show off the colors - and folded the outer edge over to give it a clean look

fold edge and glue down
again with adding glue only where the tube underneath is

add snap
put the snap in first, I just let it sit loosely inside and secured it with the ends later -- if you want to secure it to the inside do it at the middle point where the friction strip is, if you secure anywhere else you won't be able to pull it later (ask my why I know this)

crinkle
crinkle the end shut

close
and tie off

lookie!
view inside

eat sugary snacks
take a pudding break

fill
fill with goodies

tie one end
tie off other end, being sure the ends of the snap are given enough room to be grasped

yay
tada! 		I hadn't ever seen a party cracker until I was in college. These are one of those things I completely freaked out over, how fabulous - I love things that combine surprise and destruction and the need for two people to open it! My mother got a box from an imports store. Traditionally the crackers were favors at Christmas parties - Absolutely Crackers has a complete history for you. As far as I know they usually contain a charm, a joke and a tissue paper crown. The cracker is basically a tube filled with goodies, tied at both ends, and inside is a snap, a strip of cardboard with a friction spot which makes a loud popping noise when pulled from both ends. It takes two people to open, you grab ahold of the end of the cracker or just the end of the snap and pull POP yay!

I bought a make-your-own cracker kit from a great little store around here - Wishbone (tragically, without website). They came with snaps glued to the inside of the tube, all one had to do was fill the tube and shut it. It is just as easy to make your own - you just need the snaps

There are two places I know of you can order snaps from. One is here in the US - Olde English Crackers - the order form is on the first page - (they also have a page on what is, how to open, and history of). The other is Absolutely Crackers which is located in the UK but I have have heard good things about their shipping times. They have components (snaps, hats, jokes). They also have fill your own and make your own kits. Both places sell prefilled crackers, as well as offering crackers you can fill yourself and special wedding crackers. Plum Party sells silver foil wrapped crackers too, filled with confetti and whistles!

Here are some illustrated instructions on how to make a basic cracker out of a paper towel roll and tissue paper. Here are some instructions with interesting pictures. This site has christmas cracker jokes. About.com has instructions too. I like Oriental Trading Company and US Toy for small toys to fill the crackers with, and I also like the large colorful confetti which come (separated) as hearts, stars, and dots . Then again there are always Party Busters.

I am planning to make a more structured set of crackers using foil for the holidays, I hope to send them instead of cards. But I'll post that experiment as well.

A friend and I went in on a box of snaps together a while back and I had been looking for a reason to make a party cracker ever since. I had planned on Fourth of July themed ones with those champagne bottle poppers, fireworks glasses, confetti, etc. Buuut, I was lazy and they never got made.

This is my first try at making these. On some crackers I've had the end of the snap is glued to the inside of the end - so that the cracker will break open when tugged. I wrapped too many layers of tissue paper to allow for the cracker to rip open so I left the snaps lose to be tugged and the cracker ripped open afterwards. I added some things that were too heavy, I'm afraid there will be much dropping and falling when these are snapped. And I have this little worry that the stuff inside will catch on fire from the spark the friction strip makes (these strips are louder than any commercial crackers I've had so far). I hope it doesn't catch on fire. Obviously. If I make these this way again I will add only two layers of tissue paper and tack down the snap ends, I like the ripping open effect! And I will keep the contents lightweight. I made some tissue paper crowns to go inside too - directly below.

By the way, the clear gridded ruler you see in these pictures is one of my favorite things, you can find them in fabric stores and sometimes in art stores.





  tissue crowns


gather the stuff - tissue paper, scissors, ruler


I found a good height to be 1.5 inches - fold the paper in half and glue the ends (you have a loop, sort of) - at this point I glued the ends at a point which was way too large so I could determine how large to make it later


to make a tiara I angled the top up - the high point is the center front fold


sketched a design


cut the tiara from the end of the paper


and cut out the first spot




I continued fold and snip out the shapes


the front when opened up


I measure my head and added an inch or so (11 in?), marked the length, cut it an inch past that point and glued the ends together, then flipped it inside out so the glued end was on the inisde


and then folded it back up to be tucked into a cracker


for the crown I gave it a height of 2.5 inches


I gave it 12 inches, glued the ends and snipped the extra off, folded into thirds, then folded into thirds again - it works if you just keep folding it in half too




I cut on an angle from the top corner


wha la - this can be folded right back up and slipped into the cracker