Pallet American Flag

  So, I got the idea for this project from Pinterest! I spotted this pin of an amazing wooden American flag but when I followed the pin it lead to nothing more then a picture - no plans. I asked Andrew if he thought it could make me one, he (being the sweet, amazing husband he is) said yes! I'll hand the blog over to him to tell you about the pallet prep and pick up the painting part later on.

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  Here's the actual construction part of the project: most of the work was the painting and such, but I'll share how I got the flag ready.  I picked up an old pallet from the back of a warehouse, and cut the boards free using my Sawzall and a metal-cutting blade. 

I cut a pair of pieces from prior pallet projects (say that three times fast) to a length just shorter than the combined width of the boards, then arranged them in place and nailed the cleats to the back.  We decided to leave the boards with their natural warps and angles, only smoothing the front faces enough to take paint.

I used my circular saw to roughly square up the worst of the ends, but otherwise left it alone.

Ready to turn the project over to Samantha!

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  The flag itself is 39 and 1/2 inches long by 21 inches wide. I chose to make the stripes 3 inches wide, making sure to have them start and end with a red stripe. With the help of one of Andrew's yard sticks I penciled on the lines and then used 3 inch wide painters tape to mark off the ones I didn't want painted. I just went into Michael's Crafts to picked out paint for the flag (which with a one year old in the stroller was an adventure). They have what seemed like a million colors to choose from, but since I wanted my flag to have  an 'antique' look I chose Ecru, Country Red and Deep Midnight Blue.

  I did two coats for the white stripes and three coats for the red.

    The paint dries fast so I could do one coat in the morning and another that evening.

   Next, I taped off and painted the blue section.You can see off to the right that I had to touch up some of the lines.

  The stars were a lot harder then the stripes! I started to cut out a template for them but I decided I was nuts to spend all the time cutting and stressing. I saw on Pinterest an ideas that used wooden stars, so off I went to Michael's Crafts again to find some stars.

  Honestly I didn't know what was size would look the best so I picked out a bunch and brought them home and tried them all.

  I ended up choosing to do a circle of eight smaller stars, and returned the rest. I used three coats of paint.  

  I used wood glue applied with a foam brush to attach the stars to the flag.

   Andrew always clamps anything he uses wood glue on so I used some bottles as 'clamps' to weight them down.

  Then I brought it upstairs and put it on the mantel. I have to say that I LOVE how it looks!

  

  Side note: I printed the letters for the LIBERTY banner off of Shanty2Chic, and just used Red, White and Blue scrapbook paper to back them! They actually just posted their own flag project, too - theirs is meant for outdoor use.

  We just had our first guest over since I put it up and they loved it! I'm very happy with how it turned out, and it cost less then $10 to make! Sweet!!!!

Happy 4th to all!

Supply List -

2 Bottles - Country Red

1 Bottle - Ecru

1 Bottle - Dark Midnight Blue

8 - 2 inch stars

Wood Glue

2 - Foam Paint Brushes 

3 inch Painters Tape