Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Barnwood American Flag


I wanted some patriotic decor for our mantel for the rapidly approaching Fourth of July holiday.  So, I went out to our pile of leftover barn wood that we used for our house siding and dug out some red and white painted pieces.  I cut a few pieces to the same length and scraped off any big chunks of peeling paint.
 
I attached some scrap pieces of plywood to the back to hold it all together.

I printed out a large star shape to use as a pattern and began hammering small nails around the outline of the star.  When finished, I ripped the paper away and was left with tiny nails that I didn't hammer all the way in.

 I used some navy blue yarn and tied one end onto a nail at one of the points of the star.

I kept wrapping the yarn from nail to nail, keeping the tension fairly tight on my yarn.  I found that it helped to wrap the yarn all the way around each nail, to keep it from slipping off.  When I was happy with my star shape, I went around the outside line one more time and connect all of the nails with my yarn before tying it off.

I set my primitive version of an American flag up on the mantel and our living room was ready to celebrate the Fourth!  I added a large star that I made by cutting some branches to the same length, then tying them together with twine. A stack of books, some glass jars, and an old bowling pin finished it off.

Tomorrow, I'll show you my little banner I made on the front of the mantel out of old bottlecaps.

I'll be linking up to the following parties:
 
Home Stories A2Z

2 comments:

  1. I love the way you did the star! I created something similar a few years ago as a gift for my brother-in-law, and ended up using star stamps - but I love the way this looks!

    I've got a sister who is a big fan of stars, and I think she would really like something like this! Maybe something with just a solid color background and the star as the main point.

    Thanks so much for the inspiration!

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  2. How brilliant! Great job. I hope you'll add this to my Patriotic Project Parade going on through July 4th.

    http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2012/06/patriotic-project-parade-linky-party.html

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