I thought I'd share 3 of these quick and easy crafts you could whip up yourself before the celebrations begin!
1. Distressed Wood Flag
First, Mr. Sweet Love and I cut some strips of wood from what was originally a 1x2 -.87 @Home Depot. (and yes I said "I"! I have to say I love using power tools, :) but I only do it when he's home because as much as I trust myself to use them, I don't trust myself alone in bloody situations!) I spray painted 7 red...
...and 6 white.
The idea for this actually came when I found this piece of wood at DI (the thrift store) for .50 and knew it *wood* work perfectly (I know that's only funny to a select group of people...humor me) for the star section of an American flag.
After I had all my materials ready I came across THIS wood flag while perusing a linky party and was so excited to find an easy tip to creating the stars-my way was going to take much longer! Use star stickers, paint it blue and then peel off the stickers once the paint has dried. Genius!
And I actually used just a little tester size jar of paint (and only about 1/16th of the jar) I found at Home Depot for $1, in Navy Blue, for this instead of spray paint since I didn't have the color blue I wanted. (shocker I know!)
I then just used wood glue to glue each strip of the flag together, as well as the wood star block to the stripes.
I loved the flag, but the colors were a little bold for my mantle since I was going for more of the deep red and blue look. So I sanded the whole thing down to distress it a bit and then added a layer of stain in Dark Walnut. It actually turned out a little *too* distressed for my taste. Looking back, I probably would have used a lighter color stain ( I had both Dark Walnut and a light oak on hand, but opted for the darker one) but all things considered, I LOVE it!
Since I knew I was going to be distressing it, I didn't want it too perfect or symmetrical looking so we made each of the stripes a different length to give it a sort of waving type look. Well, that's what we were going for anyway! ha ha! What do you think?!
Not too bad for under $5 is what I think! ha ha!
2. DIY Declaration of Independence
This is what is in the center of my mantel above and the full tutorial is posted HERE from when I blog swapped with Crafty, Scrappy, Happy. There are just 4 simple steps and will cost less than $2!
3. DIY patriotic frame
I got this idea when I saw this gift bag at the Dollar Store! I just cut the front off the bag and used the ribbon handles taped to the back of the frame to hold the frame in place behind the glass.
Easy peesy and the color matched perfectly for my mantle! yay!
Everything else on the mantle was things I already had around the house (recognize the bean balls back in the corner?! :) ) to fill in the space around the main decorations. Now, bring on the BBQ, the swimming, the fireworks and the celebration of the beautiful, FREE country we live in!
I do have one or two more simple decoration ideas to post so make sure to check back soon! I hope you are enjoying your sunshiney, warm summery days as much as I am! Thank you so much for spending some time with me today!! Don't forget to enter my 200 follower giveaway going on now! Love yall!
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