In Honor of Our Military and Their Families
11 Materials
$8
3 Days
Medium
This is in honor of all our past, current and future military and families. Thank you for your service!
I snagged this old pallet over a year ago and it's been sitting on our patio ever since. It was time to do something with it. I started by prying off some of the boards from the back side. This was the hardest part of the redo, but even then, with the pry bar, wasn't all that bad.
The extracted boards were then nailed onto the front so there were no large gaps.
I wanted a full slate to use, so MDF board scraps were nailed over the entire pallet, making a solid surface.
Here's the pallet, fully covered with MDF scraps.
The whole front was then primed with two coats.
Next it was time to figure out the spacing and areas for the stars and stripes. The stripes were easy - I got all 13 on by measuring the height and dividing by 13. Then the star area base was painted using blue paint.
The stars were more complicated to figure out. I knew I didn't want to fit on all 50. I decided to make them on poster paper and so cut a sheet to the size of the blue area. I could change/edit/alter the poster easier than I could if painting on the pallet. I did erase a couple times, trying to follow the grid outline from a real flag. After I was done tracing, the stars were cut out and this became my template for the flag.
The white stripes were measured out and painted.
Then the red stripes were done.
I placed the star template over the blue area and sponged the stars white. If there are any personalities like mine, there are 27 stars, so you don't have to count.
I wanted the flag to have a more worn effect, so I used coffee. I dipped paper towels into it and went over the whole front. I had tried tea first but that didn't work. The coffee was left on about 45 minutes. I wiped up any wet areas that remained and the result was what I was looking for. But it's hard to see unless you're standing very close.
The final step was sealing the flag. I did that with 3 coats of Mod Podge on the front. The back side was sealed with clear coat spray paint.
In honor of all our military, this is for you.
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3 of 7 comments
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Beautiful flag!
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This is a gorgeous inspiration! Wow. I think it's perfect and touching. Thank you for sharing. Incredible job.
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