Fourth of July is just around the corner, which means it’s time to get decked out in red, white and blue! One of our favorite Fourth of July project ideas is to create a patriotic bicycle to ride around your neighborhood or local Independence Day parade. Because sometimes you need something flashy to spread holiday cheer wherever you go!

Turning your regular old bicycle into a rolling thrown fit for Uncle Sam is much easier than it looks, and it is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of anyone you pass by. And it didn’t hurt that we started with this fabulously adorable red bike from Brooklyn Bicycle Co. To begin decorating our patriotic bicycle, we threaded red, white and blue crepe streamers through the spokes of the wheels. Because we weren’t looking for long-lasting use, we simply secured the streamers with tape. Next we wrapped our quick sew paper star garland around the body of the bike. The most classic bike decoration is of course attaching tassels to your handles. So we added red tissue tassels a la our tutorial from this post!

Because our patriotic bicycle conveniently had a basket, we had to fill it with more 4th of July goodies. We created a classic display for our basket with our printable vintage American flags, tissue poms using our Americana Tissue Paper pack, and striped paper pinwheels. Download the Bike Decor PDF to find the patterned papers to make the pinwheels! Print a pattern on each side of a piece of white card stock and then follow the tutorial here to fold them. After we made the pinwheels, we then attached the cute “Happy 4th of July” and “Celebrate” signs to the front and back of the bike, which you will also find in the PDF download. Print these signs onto card stock and attach them using either twine or a heavy-duty tape. The piece de resistance of our patriotic bicycle has to be the navy paper medallions that we attached to the wheels of the bike. So cute! To make your own paper medallions, print our template below and follow our step-by-step photo tutorial! Download the PDF template if you will be cutting by hand, or the SVG version if you have a cutting machine. I would recommend using text weight paper instead of card stock so it is easier to make the folds.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July Weekend! Feel free to browse all our our Fourth of July projects for more holiday inspiration! I would love to see how you style your patriotic bicycle, so please share your photos with me by tagging your Instagram posts with #MadeWithLia or emailing pictures to hello@liagriffith.com. Stay safe and sparkle bright 🙂 ~ Lia