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Arts & Entertainment

Craft of the Week: It's Cool to be Patriotic

Celebrate the nation's independence with a cool drink of patriotism.

Crafts are a great way to exercise your artistic side but they are also very useful at bringing people together. 

Each week, we will post a simple and easy project for your enjoyment. This is a great opportunity for you to reconnect with your friends and family while enjoying a weekly craft night. 

Red, White, and Blue Ice
Nothing says 4th of July like fireworks, flags, and... ice? Yes -- now you can show off your patriotic pride with every cool sip of your drink of choice.

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In addition to flashing the colors of our flag, this nifty trick can add a new depth of flavor to your favorite drink. For example, you can layer different types of soda or juice so that as your ice melts, it adds different flavors to the drink. Alternatively, you can use food coloring to customize the color of the liquid you choose to work with. 

For the purposes of this demonstration, you will make ice out of lemonade and dye it with food coloring. You can serve these cubes with plain water so that the ice will add a little color and lemon-kick to your drink. You can also serve the lemonade cubes with lemonade so that as the cubes melt, it will not dilute your drink!

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What You Need

  • Lemonade
  • Food Coloring (Red and Blue)
  • Ice Tray
  • Glass
  • Freezer

Step 1
Clean out your ice tray to make sure there is no other ice residue present.

Step 2
Depending on how much ice you plan to make, add red food coloring to enough lemonade that will fill the bottom 1/3 of each slot in the ice tray. 

Step 3
Place ice tray in freezer until thoroughly frozen. 

Step 4
Using cold lemonade, add another layer of lemonade so that each slot in the ice tray is 2/3 full. 

Step 5
Place ice tray in freezer until thoroughly frozen.

Step 6
Using cold lemonade, add blue food coloring to enough lemonade to fill the remainder of the ice tray. 

Step 7
Place ice tray in freezer until thoroughly frozen.

Step 8
Remove the ice cubes from the tray and serve with water, lemonade, or your favorite 4th of July drink.

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Fun Tip: Don't limit this trick to just the 4th of July. Adding color and flavor  to your ice cubes can be fun any time of the year. Green for St. Patrick's Day, red for Valentine's Day, and blue for winter!

You can also add small popsicle sticks into your cubes and serve them as frozen treats!  

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