Ah, Canada Day.

I love this country and give it a solid go every year when it comes to busting out the patriotic gear. But, getting the tiny person plugged in to something more than the candy from the Canada parade is, well, challenging.

She’s at the age of dis-interest – too young for a bigger history project like recording the stories from folks like her grandma who have been here a few generations, and too old to let the holiday pass by without some sort of commemorative project.

And then there’s me – not so interested either in snagging a bunch of plastic once-a-year goo.

So, I resorted to asking her what Canada Day means to her and she gave me the obvious answer – glitter. (How could I not have known?)

We’ve been stacking up lids from jars in the craft recycle bin for a while, convinced that they would come in handy at some magic future point. Then the powers of glitter and recycling seem to have collided and lead us directly to homemade maple leaf magnets.

Here’s what you need:

- Red, white and silver glitter or glitter glue

- Clean lids from jars of sauce, pickles, anything with  a big lid.

- Magnets (we bought the strip kind, don’t use them. Use the heavy duty dot kind)

- White glue

Directions:

1. Collect some lids.

2. Take the white glue and paste the magnet on the back. Let dry.

3. Take your trusty glitter glue and make maple leaf designs. Depending on how thick the glue is, these will take a couple of days to dry. If you need a fast-dry solution, replace the glitter glue with glitter on top of white glue.

Younger kids have a lot of fun making red and white glittery designs that look more like a funky firework, but serve the same purpose and make parents less cranky.

These are a fast making, long dry-time project that actually can be put up on the fridge or in a conspicuous metallic location within an hour or so of creating them.

Our house is now patriotically glitter-tastic and I’m pretty sure that these fun little art projects will make us bust out into a spontaneous round of “Oh, Canada!” at random intervals over the next few days.

Happy Tuesday!