If you were excited to see the breath-taking Star Wars Spectacular floats in the 2007 Rose Parade, now is your chance to throw a smaller parade using homemade floats made just right for your action figures.

Dried beans, twigs, spices and flowers decorated the real Star Wars floats. But for this craft project you can also use clay, Popsicle sticks, felt, glitter and chenille sticks to make your own magnificent display. Think of it as a diorama on wheels!

Decide what kind of float you would like to make for your action figures. Keep in mind each float should have a theme for its decorations like the green forest of Endor, the volcanoes of Mustafar, the desert of Tatooine, or the gigantic flowers of Felucia. Then gather all the materials you need to make that float. For this float we'll be creating one similar to the one seen in the Star Wars Spectacular entry in the 2007 Rose Parade. You can read more about this floats in this feature article here.

Materials to Use:

• Action figures
• A large toy truck (to build on)
• Glitter and acrylic paint
• Colored felt
• Fake flowers
• Beads
• Aquarium pebbles and sand
• Dried beans and spices
• Cardboard
• Empty tissue box
• Styrofoam
• Model clay
• Popsicle sticks
• Toothpicks
• Colored construction paper
• Chenille sticks
• Real twigs and pine needles
• Dried moss
• Brown paper bags
• Scissors
• Glue and tape

Instructions:

1. Because Endor is full of trees and grass, green is the color of choice! To make a tree, take a cylinders from thin pieces of cardboard, brown construction paper or even brown paper bags for the trunks. Flare out the base of the trunk by cutting slits and folding them out so the tree can stand. For the treetops, make inverted cone shapes from green construction paper or felt.

2. If you want more realistic-looking trees, the best place to find materials is in your back yard! Go outside and gather brown sticks, twigs, pine needles, and cedar shrub leaves. Then glue pine needles to sticks, or simply use twigs and shrub leaves for miniature trees. Make mini-shrubs with real materials as well.

3. Before you can start decorating the float, you need a base to work off of. Cut a vertical tissue box in half and fit it over a large truck toy so that your float can move like a real one! Then cover the box in brown construction paper.

4. And glue or tape your trees to it one by one. Feel free to make more trees from model clay, chenille stems, felt and other items.

5. Once all the trees are in place, start filling in the ground with moss, green felt, dried split peas, and beans. Also use red and black beans for rocks. Or make gray and brown rocks from construction paper you've shaped and taped into spheres and cubes.

6. Add the final touches with glitter paint and sand. And don't forget to add any action figures you want on Endor such as Ewoks, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca!

Once your Star Wars craft is finished, submit a photo of it to Bantha Tracks. Send it by regular postal mail to our address here: Bantha Tracks, P.O. Box 29901, San Francisco, CA 94129-0901. Or click here to email your photos.