I love the delicate and intricate art of paper quilling, and thought it would be fun to bring the technique to a decoration for the upcoming July 4th holiday. I decided to make cake toppers with paper quilled rockets, stars, and fireworks!

The best thing about paper quilling is that you really only need two things to do it -- regular white glue and quilling paper. Quilling paper comes in super thin strips of various lengths and in a multitude of colors. For the toppers I'm going to show you, you'll need red, white, blue, and two shades of yellow.

You can find lots of paper quilling books to show you advanced techniques, but for me it all comes down to rolling spirals, then pinching them into shapes. To get the spiral going, I like to wrap one end of the paper strip around a toothpick, then roll it between my fingers. The size of the spiral will be determined by the length of the paper you use.

When you have the spiral completed, slide it off the toothpick and let it relax a little. Tighten or loosen it as needed to get the size you want, then apply a dab of glue to the end of the strip to hold it together.

For the rockets, you'll need one large red spiral, four medium blue spirals, three medium white spirals, and one small yellow strip with spirals on both ends.

Use your thumbs and index fingers to pinch the red spiral into a triangular shape.

Then fold the yellow double-spiral in half.

The trickiest pieces are the blue and white ones, which need to be pinched into rectangles. Use your thumbs and index fingers to force the spiral into a rectangle, pinching the corners as you go.

Once you've got these pieces all pinched into shape, you can start gluing them together!

First, glue the blue and white pieces together, alternating colors, into a long rectangle strip.

Then wrap a piece of blue paper around the rectangle, to hold everything together and create a smooth, clean edge.

Then glue the red triangle to one end, and the yellow flames to the other.

When it was dry, I glued the entire rocket to a lollipop stick.

Next is the stars, which are the easiest of the three shapes I made. For each star, you need six equally-sized spirals.

Pinch five of the spirals into triangles, and leave the last one round.

Then just glue the triangles to the circle, and you're done!

I made stars in red, white, and blue, and once again glued them to a lollipop stick.

For the fireworks, you'll need seven paper strips in two shades of yellow. For each strip, create a large double-loop circle, making the inner loop a little smaller than the outer.

Pinch one side to a point, then curve the rest into a banana shape, and pinch the other end.

Roll one side up with your fingers to create a gentle curve.

Lay the pieces out, alternating between the two shades of yellow, until you get a look you like.

Then glue them to another lollipop stick. I also added a small strip of yellow paper to cover the front of the lollipop stick, since the white took away from the look of the firework.

I made two rockets, one set of stars, and two fireworks. I stuck them in the top of a cake decorated in red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July. Oh my goodness, it's so cute I can hardly stand it!