Better Late Than Never? 4th of July Painted Flag and USA/Declaration of Independence Sign

Another July 4th has come and gone.  I finished these patriotic projects just a little too late to share with you before the Independence Day holiday, but they are beautiful enough to display year-round.  Make them now or pin them to your 4th of July Pinterest board to make for next year!

Creating both of these projects was easy.  Let's start with the Pottery Barn Painted Flag knock-off.

My inspiration was this beautiful flag from Pottery Barn.

But at $129, I knew I could make my own.  I started by finding a piece of  alder wood in our garage (left over from our fireplace remodel) that was 26 inches wide (the Pottery Barn flag is twice as big as mine).  Then I did a bit of research on the U.S. Flag because I wanted to make sure that my flag was proportionally true to the real flag.  Using 26" as the width for the flag, I used the dimensional information from usflag.org to figure out the rest of the measurements (i.e., width of stripes, size of stars, etc.).  Here's what my kids who are better at math than me I came up with:  

Next I lightly sanded the wood and rounded the edges a bit (that alder wood is super easy to "shape").  I then painted the entire board with white craft paint and let dry (this was like a primer coat).  Then I applied a coat of antique white craft paint and let that dry.

Using blue painters' tape and a ruler, I marked off the area that would be blue.  Then I used tape to mark the red stripes.  Before I painted the red stripes I applied a coat of Martha Stewart Weather Crackle Effect and let that dry.  Red paint is then applied and when it dries, the cracks in the paint appear!
When the red stripes are dry, mark off the white stripes with painters' tape.  Apply the crackle effect, let dry, then apply a pure white paint.
For the blue Union part of the flag, tape it off once the stripes are dry, paint the crackle effect first, let dry then paint the blue.
For the stars, I created a stencil using my Silhouette machine.  The dimensions are 10.4" wide x 7.4" tall (the same dimensions as the blue union on the flag).  Each star is .84".

I cut the stencil out of vinyl, weeded out the stars, and centered it over my dried blue area of the flag.  I painted one coat of Antique White, then a coat of Crackle Effect, then a coat of white, drying each coat before applying the next.  Then I simply peeled off the vinyl to reveal the white stars.

For the song lyrics, I again used my Silhouette.  I used the font Minya Nouvelle in a size 62.0 pt.  I cut the letters out of red vinyl and adhered them to the flag using transfer tape.

The U.S.A./Declaration of Independence sign was an easy project as well (and less time-consuming than the flag.)

I got the 3-photo wood board and the U.S.A. letters from a local crafting woodshop here in Utah called The Wood Connection.  They do not ship their products, so if you're not in Utah you'll need to check Michaels or Jo-Ann for similar products.

The board measures 16.25" x 8".  The one I got from The Wood Connection has 3 raised panels, but you could accomplish the same look with a flat piece of wood.  
The letters measure 4" x 6".
I painted the board black and the letters red.  The Wood Connection has a great tutorial for applying the glitter here.

For the Declaration of Independence background I downloaded a copy of the document and sized it according to the measurements of the 3 raised panels.  You can download the pre-measured sections by clicking on each one's caption.

Declaration1

Declaration2

Declaration3

I printed these on Strathmore 140lb Watercolor paper because I wanted the paper to have a heavy texture.  Once printed, I cut them out and adhered them to the black board with Elmer's Glue.  Then I glued the letters onto the paper with Elmer's Glue.
Please let me know if you have any questions about either of these projects.  I didn't take photos as I went because I didn't think I'd be sharing tutorials (but I've had enough requests, so there you go!)
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Stenciled Gift Wrap

If you're a regular reader of Hello, New Day then you know by now that I love stencils and stenciling projects.  My latest stenciling project is this cute and colorful gift wrap that I created this week using the small Hollywood Squares Stencil from Royal Design Studios:

When I was at the Snap! Conference in April I received this free stencil from Royal Design Studios. 

I hadn't heard of them before, but once I started looking through their catalog, and after taking a hands-on class at Snap! from the company's president and creative director herself, Melanie Royals, I was hooked.  

They have an awesome collection of beautiful stencils and so many inspiring projects on their website.  There are also some fantastic resources on their website for learning how to stencil and learning different techniques.  

This gift wrap was easy to make and would be a fun project for the kids too!  The color possibilities are endless and the cost minimal.  I started with some packing paper that I had on hand.  Whenever I go to Tai Pan Trading here in Utah (a home decor store), I seem to bring home sheets and sheets of this paper.  They use it to wrap fragile items that you buy, and I've always hated just throwing it away.  Some time ago, I decided to start keeping it, thinking I could use it for packing paper myself someday or for shipping items.

Since the paper was wrinkled, I ironed it.  I didn't even know you could iron paper, but you can!  I set my iron to high and ironed directly on the paper.  I read that you should put a cloth or pillowcase over the paper before ironing, but for me it worked better without the cloth.

Before ironing:

  

After ironing:

Then I simply placed the stencil on the paper and taped it in a couple of places to hold it in place.

I wanted to use orange and pink for my gift wrap, but I didn't have any craft paint in the right colors, so I used my stamping ink and applied it with sponge wedges.  I used Stampin' Up's Classic Ink in Only Orange and Pink Passion (I know the supplies photo above shows Positively Pink, but I changed my mind after I took that photo and switched to Pink Passion).

To apply the ink, I just dabbed and rubbed the ink right on the paper over the stencil.

It took me an hour to stencil the whole paper (which measures 24" x 34"), and cleanup was a cinch.  The ink literally washed off under running water in the kitchen sink.  

I loved doing this project and I can't wait to give my sister her birthday gift that I wrapped in this colorful, fun gift wrap!

I love the pattern and color combination so much that I think I'll stencil a canvas tablecloth in this design that I can use outside for summer dining.  Or maybe a beach tote.  Or maybe both.  It's just too cute!

You can find the Hollywood Squares stencil that I used at Royal Design Studio by clicking here.  Thank you so much for stopping by!

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Laundry Sign Inspired by Ballard Designs

I finally finished a project that I started about six months ago.  Have you ever done that?  Started a project then for some reason or another it sits there forever, unfinished?  I hate that.  Back in December I decided to make a piece of art for my laundry room.  I used this beautiful sign that I saw in the Ballard Designs catalog as inspiration:

Ballard Designs

Here are the materials I used:

• 16x20 wrapped canvas from Michaels
• Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Craft Paint in the following colors:
• Putty
• Vanilla Bean
• Acorn
• Martha Stewart Crafts Weather Crackle Effect
• Adhesive Vinyl and my Silhouette machine

I started by painting two coats of the "Putty" paint color on the canvas front and sides.  Then I created the wording in my Silhouette program.  I used Times New Roman font for all of the words.  The word "Laundry" is 200.0 point, the second line is 93.6 point and the rest of the wording is 63.0 point.  And THIS is when my project stalled.

Canvas with 2 coats of "putty" paint

I have used my Silhouette many times for cutting paper, but not often to cut vinyl.  I wanted to cut the letters onto vinyl so that I could stick them to the canvas and use them as stencils.  I could not get the smaller letters to cut without them pulling up and getting all tangled and mangled in the machine.  I spent hours working on this.  Finally, in frustration, I put the whole project away until last week.




I got the vinyl loaded into the Silhouette and tried again.  Same problem.  Yeah, I'm not sure why I thought time would solve this issue.  :)  I sent Silhouette Customer Service an e-mail describing my problem and asking them if I was trying to cut letters that were too small.  They responded in ten (!!!!) minutes - awesome!  Their suggestion was that I slow down the cutting speed to 1 and decrease the cutting thickness to the lowest level.  WHADDYA KNOW?  It worked!   

Using transfer tape, I transferred the wording to the canvas.  Then I put one coat of "Putty"-colored paint over the words to kind of seal them onto the canvas in preparation for the darker color.  I let this coat of paint dry.

Once the coat of "Putty"-colored paint was dry, I put one coat of "Vanilla Bean" on the canvas.  When this coat was dry, I applied a coat of the Weather Crackle Effect.  The photo below shows the canvas at this point in the process (while the Weather Crackle was still wet):

I let the crackle effect dry overnight and this is what the canvas looked like in the morning:

At this point, I worked quickly and didn't take photos of the process, but here's what I did:  I covered the entire front of the canvas in "Acorn"-colored paint.  While it was still wet, I removed all of the vinyl letters using the weeding tool that came with my Silhouette.  Once the letters were removed, I used my hand to get the canvas wet with a bit of water and I scraped the acorn paint off with my fingernails and with a paper towel.  I wanted the sign to look like weathered wood.  I just scraped and rubbed until I liked how it looked.  If the paint started to dry too much then I just lightly wet it again so that it would scrape off.

So now, in retrospect, it wasn't a difficult project.  I couldn't be happier with the customer service department over at Silhouette America - they were so quick to respond and their suggestions were right on target.  Now, if you've got a project that you've set aside, I encourage you to pick it back up and finish it!  It's a wonderful feeling!



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