Turn Dollar Tree Pool Noodles Into The Ultimate Birthday Bash Lawn Decor

If you're trying to plan an outdoor birthday party this summer, you should be using this genius pool noodle hack in your backyard. With a few of these foam noodles from Dollar Tree, you can make adorable faux birthday candles to decorate your lawn. You will also need wooden skewers ($1.25 at Dollar Tree) to stick your decorative candles into the ground. Alternatively, you might support the candles with a reflector stick ($22 for an eight pack on Amazon), which would also make the top glow more like a real flame.

The flame for the top of your candle could be made from construction paper, card stock, or colorful foam craft sheets (about $5 on Amazon). For a more realistic flickering flame, try attaching battery-powered tea lights, which can be found at Walmart for about $7, to the tops of your candles to bring a gorgeous glow to your backyard. To further decorate your pool noodle candles, you might wrap white tape around them to give them the traditional birthday candle look — or cut out and glue cute shapes to them. If your party is for an adult and you want more sophisticated-looking candles, you might consider spray painting your foam noodles white. Now, on to the details.

First, you'll need to decide how many candles you want to make (hopefully, the birthday coincides with when you're preparing your home for summer parties!). While it can be fun to make as many as the person's age, this could be difficult for older adults and make your lawn look crowded. Each pool noodle will be able to create two candles unless you desire short options. Cut your noodles in half using a serrated knife or boxcutter until you have the preferred number. If the edges are really ragged, you can cut off loose pieces with scissors for a neater look. Take your skewers and insert two into the bottom of each noodle so that the pointed ends stick out. This is how you will insert your candles into your lawn. If you plan to use a reflector stick, you can skip this step.

Now, you'll need to make the flame for your candle. With your yellow and orange paper or craft foam, trace and cut out shapes that have a pointy top and wide curves at the base; however, make sure to leave a strip of material underneath the flame to help attach it. Place this long end into the hole in your pool noodle and tape it in place. With tea lights, you'll need to trace their size onto the end of your noodle and cut it out. This will allow the battery to sit inside the noodle.

To make your faux birthday candles look even more like the real thing, use tape to make a spiral pattern around the pool noodle. With white duct tape ($1.25 at Dollar Tree) or masking tape, start at the bottom of your candle and carefully twist it around the foam. Make sure you're leaving space between the tape so you can see the color of the pool noodle and get that typical birthday candle design. Once you reach the other end of the noodle, cut the tape and stick it inside the hole in the foam. You might also make cute cut-outs of hearts, stars, or the birthday person's age and glue them to your candles.

Once completed, you can stick your candles right into your lawn. If you're using reflector sticks, place the pool noodle over the stick so that the reflector comes out where the flame is — and insert it into the ground. You might disperse your candles all over your lawn or group them beside your refreshment table to add some pizazz. They could also be placed in your front yard to indicate to guests where the party is. However you use them, these decorative birthday candles are easy to make and extremely cute for any birthday bash.