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June 20, 2011

Distressed Blocks Flag

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and a great time celebrating the amazing dads in your life!
Little man loved celebrating 'daddy's day' and had to color a picture for hubby that morning :)

Remember how I told you last week that I had a fun Americana project in the works?
Well I've been dying to show you!

It's super easy and I did it one afternoon when I just felt restless and I had to do something.
Does anyone else get into those moods?
Just needing to do something crafty?

Hubby gave me a whole pile of little scrap blocks in my stocking this year.
It was hilarious pulling them out and unwrapping each one...
little man thought it was the best stocking ever.
Mommy got wood blocks!

Hubby was quite pleased with himself.
But they came quite in handy for this project.

Supplies needed:
*Scrap blocks- Hobby Lobby sells bags of them in their unifinished wood section
*Acrylic paint in red, white and blue (black if you want to distress some)
*painting tape
*stamp or stickers for the stars.  

I got out all my wood blocks and laid them out until I liked the shape they were in.
I wanted my flag to have a vintage, distressed feel so I certianly wasn't going for perfect lines.

I then, hot glued (yes, hot glued) them together all along their edges.
It works like a charm!


I got out all my pretty Americana colors out:


And used my painter's tape to tape off the stripes and the big square for the blue.


I gave it several coats of each color with just a foam brush.


and ended up with (near) perfect, crisp lines.
But-eek!
I'm not a big fan of those perfect crisp paint lines.
So of course I got out my trusty little sander and went to town.
I also dry-brushed some black acrylic paint over it in certian areas.

This little flag was looking like it had already worked hard for the country :)

This is it before it got sanded...


Then I took a flourish stamp I had and stamped it into the corner of the blue square.
I added some stars throughout because you can't have a flag without stars :)


I'm kind of in love with how it turned out...


I added a couple more flourishes in random places and sanded them a little once they were dry.


I love the distressed look, like it's been flying for years and years already.





And the wood blocks give it a quality of dimension that I love...


I'm quite sure this little flag is proud to be American too :)


I'm so excited about the fourth-
hot dogs, fireworks, lake trips, family time...
and celebrating out country.

Do you have any favorite Fourth of July memory?

And keep checking back- I have a fun fun printable for you guys that I can't wait to share!

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Linking to:
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18 comments:

  1. This is really cute! My daughter and I are starting July 4th crafts tomorrow.

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  2. Great job! I really like the flourish stamp....it adds a nice touch!

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  3. Lovely! I like your little embellishments! TFS!

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  4. The piece has great texture with the layers of blocks. Love how the flourish adds an unexpected touch.

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  5. Love my country and that red white and blue.

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  6. What a great project! Love the uneven blocks -- really adds to the vintage charm of this as does the stamped flourish!

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  7. It looks fantastic! Thanks for inking up to this week's Catch a Glimpse party. I'll be featuring this tomorrow.

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  8. I love this block piecing technique--very cool for a flag! Thanks for sharing.

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  9. Very cute! Love it!Perfect for the 4th~

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  10. Totally cute! If i can find the blocks I may have to do this.

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  11. I love it and the distressing is perfect!

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  12. Thanks for this great idea! I have some scrap blocks like these, so I am totally doing this!

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  13. TOTALLY love this!! And LOVE the flourish :) I didn't know about Hobby Lobby having blocks--I wish one was closer to me!! Thanks for sharing. I am your newest follower and would love if you'd follow me too
    xoxo
    amy

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  14. Kelsey, this is so dang cute! I love the dimension of the cubes and the distressed look of the flag. It's so perfect I just am dying! Great job!

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  15. Wow, I love your poject with this distressed flag you did! It takes a lot of skills and talent to come up with this! God bless America! Come over to visit my 4th, July tablescape. Lots of hugs, FABBY

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  16. This is so cute! I love your flag and the fact that it is dimensional which makes it different than many of the other flags I've seen. I popped over from the Marvelous Mess Linky party where I've also linked up, stop by if you like.
    Hugs, antonella :-)
    http://quilling.blogspot.com/2011/06/filigree-friday-free-quilled-dress.html
    http://quilling.blogspot.com/2011/06/wondrous-wednesday-patriotic-printable.html

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  17. What a great project! It turned out beautiful. I'd love to have you post this on my Share the Wealth Wednesday Link Party at www.laughloveandcraft.com. I'm your newest follower!

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  18. Love this project. The dimensions the wood blocks add are fantastic!! And, I am a big fan of the pretty stamp on the blue. Great job!!!

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Reading your comments makes my day!!! I'd love for you to leave me some love and make me smile :)