july 4th diy: paint resist american flag

This is my third year of flag making for the july bed! I really like how this one turned out. The picture in my head before I began was exactly this! Yay for total crafty success (give or take a few oops moments)!

 

materials:

*painters tape (wide would be best)

*foam core or canvas

*acrylic paint

*star shaped paper punch

*white card stock

*expired gift card or other plastic card or scraper

*rag for wiping paint off card as you go

I used foam core purchased form the dollar store for this practice because I thought the size was good, it was sturdy, and well...cheap. That said, when removing the tape from the board there was some lifting and tearing of both the top paper of the board and the paint. So maybe canvas would be better. Use your painter's tape to map out your flag. My tape was also purchased from the dollar store. and was more narrow than I would have liked so I used two rows of tape per stripe. I figured the low tack of the cheaper tape would work better but I thought wrong.

 

Squirt, splatter, and dribble your paint colors all over your board. It is okay for the paint to sit a moment before scraping. It allows the colors to set where they are creating more happy layers as you scrape.

 

Use your plastic card for scraping the paint much like we did for our father's day candy bar wrappers. I used a very old and expired calling card for my scraper. Make sure to have a cloth or rag nearby to wipe paint off of your card. A little paint goes a long way. If doing this with kiddos, make sure to have a lot of rags handy as kiddos love to squirt paint! When you scrape away, make sure to mix up the direction you are scraping in. Curve it up, swirl it around and have fun with it.

this is after I fixed the star box

Once you get all the super blobby bits of paint off your board and you have finished scraping the paint all over the place. Very carefully peel the tape off. My tape managed to pull up quite a bit of the foam core and even the top layer of paint on one of my stripes. To fix it, I let the paint dry then added another line of tape and repainted and scrape it a little bit. for the parts that were curling up and peeling like crazy, I smoothed them down with some matte mod podge and while when the light hits it a certain way you can see it, it is otherwise unnoticeable.

When the paint is peeled you may notice your box where the stars are going to go is much smaller than you anticipated. Pull out the tape and expand the box by adding tape along the stripe lines...kinda like extending the box to the lines to blend it all in a better. I did not take photos of this.

 

While your paint is drying, punch out your stars from sturdy card stock. I repurposed a picture one of my preschoolers gifted me and decided to use the arted up side of the stars on my flag.

you can see the repaired surface here

Once the flag is dry, the paint removed, and the torn parts prettied up, add your stars using a drop of glue. My flag has 33 stars on it.

 

 

So, there ya go! An easy, kid-friendly flag you can paint up in a day. Check out my denim flag here and my necktie flag here. Happy 4th, friends!

scrumdilly diy: make an upcycled necktie flag

I was and am really proud of the denim flag I made last year for the july bed. Last year's flag was originally going to be a necktie flag but I couldn't source enough red, white, and/or blue neckties in time. Fast forward to this year when the mister and I began buying up neckties whenever we found them. The mister uses them for his tinkers damn ukuleles and I use them for various craft projects. As I collected them I would put aside the red, white and blue ties.

 

June came and I pulled out all my ties and found all sorts of red, white, and blue prints. I also felt completely uninspired...I was over the red, over the blue, and over the white. I wanted more color, more fun, and I really wanted to use this amazing green floral tie that was most probably a gift from this happy spiffy lady (thank you, Nikki!)

And that was that. I pulled out all the happy ties and began stitch-stitching them together...here are some details....

I used a medium zig-zag stitch in various contrasting colors to stitch the ties together. I originally pinned the ties together but quickly grew tired of having the pins poke me and ended up holding the ties next to each other as I zipped them through the machine.

Alternate the direction of each tie as you go to create as rectangular a flag as possible. I snipped the excess tie pieces at various lengths and stitched them down to keep them from fraying. My flag might actually look a little more flag-like had that bottom tie been less wonky and weavy and wavy and full of its biased self. It curled and I had no idea why or how and it might have been tension issues but being that I am a lazy sewer I rarely touch that dial and so I attempted to add another tie to the bottom but had to rip it out (which took me half of an hour) when it proved to be even more wavy wavy than the one above. I added it to the top instead and found to my dismay it too was full of its biased self. So now my flag looked a little less flag-like but it did look a little wavy so I went with it. Besides, after that point my seam ripper and I were not on speaking terms.

 

After you assemble the base of your flag pick out a bit of happy fabric for the base of your stars. I was super thrilled to find a blazing purple velvet top at the thrift to use. The only problem was that the velvet was of the stretchy kind and no matter how many pins I pinned it still slipped about all over the place. Stitch the second base onto your flag base and go rifle through your junk drawers for beads and old costume jewelry.

Yes, I actually managed to scrape up fifty odds and ends of the bejeweled kind for my stars. You really do not need to go that far but I had been holding onto these bits and pieces for a decade and decided to use them up.

The best way to attach the shiny baubles to the velvet is to use a hot hot HOT glue gun. No cute mini bedazzled gun will do, you need some super bond. Plug in the glue gun and while it heats up, arrange your baubles how you like.

Secure in place with a hefty dose of glue. Don't worry about the webby bits. Once the glue dries you can pull them off. Just get all glue happy and be careful of your fingers.

Once dry, tack it to your wall and salute!

All in all I think I made this flag for around $5 or maybe even less as many of the ties came from Nikki and/or a $5 bag sale from a local thrift. The velvet top was $1.50 and the baubles were from granny. In retrospect, I am wondering if the flag would be more stable and less wavy if I stitched my ties to the pillow case I had originally intended to use as a backing. So, think about it, gather up some ties and go for it! And if you do make one, please, please, oh pretty please send me a link and/or a photo!