Rocket Packs: A Detailed Tutorial

For my daughter’s 4th birthday, she requested an Astronaut Princess Party (why not?!), and we set to work defining what constitutes an “astronaut princess.” One thing Jenna was adamant about was that Astronaut Princesses could fly in/with rockets. When looking for inspiration, we both really loved these two images:

Jenna had some special requests (needs to have purple, a tiara, etc), and I had some specifications (adjustable straps for different size kids, quick, sturdy, etc). This is what we came up with:

What I used:

2 two-liter clean, dry, and paperless bottles per rocket pack
- If you’re struggling finding donations for these, I found this awesome site that will sell them relatively cheaply (and very good quality).
- I also used 20 oz and 1 liter bottles for our various sizes of toddlers (1-2.5 years).
Silver spray paint
2 wire hangers
Hot glue
Duct tape in various colors (we used purple, blue, and silver)
Stickers
Crepe paper (yellow, orange, and red)
Fleece fabric cut into strips (1″ x 34″ for preschoolers and 1″ x 30″ for toddlers)

(1) Cut wire hanger in the middle, and straighten hook.

(3) Stick hanger in the ground.

(4) Place 2-liter bottles on hanger “spikes” for spray painting.

(5) Spray bottles with silver spray paint.

(6) Hot glue bottles together. If possible, you’ll want to use a “low heat” setting on your hot glue gun as the bottles melt easily.

(7) Rip duct tape into 26″ strips of each color. Affix middle of tape strip over the front of the bottles, and bring tape sides around to the back, securing the fabric straps to the bottle.

(8) Apply second color duct tape next to the first. Finish with third color duct tape between the first two.

(9) Affix sticker.

(10) Cut two strips of crepe paper as follows: yellow 6″, orange 5″, red 4″. Cut these strips in half. You should have 8 strips of each color per “rocket pack.”

(11) Tear 16″ strip of duct tape. Rip in half. Lay one ripped half flat, sticky side up. Leaving a small bit of sticky tape exposed, begin to attach the top of your crepe paper strips in the following order: 4 yellow, 4 orange, 4 red (you should have a few inches of sticky tape at the end).

(12) Carefully tape around nozzle of bottle (I thought this looked cleaner than trying to attach tape around the bottle neck). Repeat for second bottle.

(13) Hot glue straps towards top of bottle and bottom of bottle. These are angled a bit to keep the straps from rubbing against small necks.

When only secured with hot glue, the straps did not hold up to the rigor of preschool/toddler play. Thus, I’d recommend adhering with an additional strip of duct tape or something similar.