I Think It's a Go!

 When last I posted, I mentioned that I was already starting to think of some ideas for the 4th of July...especially ideas that I can do with the kids to give as gifts. With a bit of time on my hands, I grabbed a few of the old fence slats I had removed last year, pulled out my new saw and got to town. The idea that I had found used more of a block of wood but, knowing that I already had the other wood at my disposal, I decided to change up the shape a bit. Then, I gathered up the supplies and thought I would give one a try.

I started by dry brushing the wood with white chalk paint and then dry brushing on some red and blue craft paint on to pages from an old book.

I didn't have a star paper punch the size I needed but I did have a star stencil so it was pretty easy to just cut out the four stars that I needed. Then, I began to play around with how many stripes I wanted and how thick to make them. The sample doesn't use plain pages for the white stripes, so I didn't either. I just let the white of the board do that.

I initially thought I would use seven stripes - four red and three white - but, as you will see, I ended up going with nine. I just used a metal ruler to rip up against to get my stripes. The sample was also VERY distressed with antique wax and the edges of all of the paper was supposed to be rubbed until it started curling or pushing back on itself. I actually tried to do that but, instead of looking intentional, in my case it just looked like I had made a horrible mistake. And so, that step was skipped.

The sample was also very heavily waxed...I tried that too and it looked fine but I felt like I completely lost the white of the flag. And so, in the end, I washed a bit of the wax off and also came back with a bit more dry brushed white paint. The flag was meant to be a shelf sitter but I am thinking it might need a hanger of some sort - or some other embellishment at the very least.

I did decide that it will be a good project for the kids. It is not super difficult nor does it have too many steps but, it will keep them busy for a bit and it does offer enough leeway that they can add their own spin to it. I'm sure some will be straight red, white and blue, some may have more or less stripes, etc. You'll be the first to see them when we do them...guessing I will have to wait until at least May. Lol

It's not done yet but I have a good idea what might come next. We shall see. Stay safe and stay tuned.