You're A Grand Ole' Flag. . .

It's beginning to feel a little like summer finally!  My favorite thing about summer time is the 4th of July. 


Photo courtesy of  http://www.passion-for-parties.com/4th-of-July-foods.html

I love everything about the 4th, the fireworks, the barbecue, the hot summer day, family get togethers, and celebrating our wonderful country.  The 4th is also my little Mr. 7's very favorite holiday out of the whole year!

The warmer weather got me thinking about new wall art we could do, then I remembered a wooden flag I had gotten at a yard sale a few years back.  We used this as a pattern, and I must admit I think the new version is the better version!  A couple of weekends ago when my husband and my parents went to yard sales (without me:() they picked up a free partial IKEA dresser.  The drawers were missing, so all it consisted of was the back, sides, and legs.  My husband saw only "free wood" and snatched it up.  With the help of our trusty Dewalt jigsaw from, what else, a yard sale, we were able to cut the stripes and star to near perfection!  (With the items we redo, we don't ever really strive for perfection, we want something with character, and something flawed usually has great character).

Here are the stripes.  The red was the natural color of the dresser wood and the white stripes were painted with Caromal Colours Wisteria.

Here are the support braces for the back,

as well as the blue area for the star.

We glued the support bars on as well as

nailed them together with a finish nailer.

Then, we glued the blue sort-of-square down

and nailed it.

Next, we glued and nailed the star down.

(This glue is fabulous!)

Here it is all put together.

But, it is not finished yet.

We want it to look like it has

been around for ages.

A little more distressing. . .

then we applied toner to the entire piece

(including all the "crooks and nannies!")

Anyone know what movie that is from?

You can see the difference, especially

in the white stripes between toned and

untoned.

It really gives it the character we talked about.

Look-how-beautiful-and-grand he is!

The stripes are even waving!

I absolutely love how some of the

red color is coming through the blue!

If you look closely, you will see the red even coming

through on the white stripes.

How fab is that!?

We will definitely be making more of these

for the upcoming holidays!