land of the free // home of the brave

I have been dying to do a pallet American flag for a very long time! And I finally did it! After some inspiration from my mom, who made hers a couple weekends ago, I finally made time for mine! And I absolutely love the way it turned out. This project is seriously so simple and a lot of fun. Get together some of your best girlfriends and make a night of it.

 I made my flag more rustic looking, rather than the bright white, bold blue and radiant red, I did a darker red and blue and a creamy white.

What you'll need to make your pallet flag:
-Pallet pieces
-Paint
-Paint brushes (if your pallet was rough like mine, I recommend hair brushes, not foam)
-Sandpaper
-Nails and a hammer OR Staples and a staple gun
-Star stamp or star stencil

You can make the flag as big or as small as you'd like. I used 8 pallet pieces, so 10 pieces total. 8 in front and 2 in the back. My friend Megan who made this with me last night did 5 pieces, so 7 pieces total. My mom used 6, so 8 total. You get the gist.

Make sure your pallet pieces are even in length... You can have them a little uneven for the 'rustic' or 'country' feel. Whatever style you like, do! It's your flag! If they aren't even, saw the ends to make them even. Then pick what side you'd like on to paint on and have that side face the ground. Take a staple gun and hold the boards together tightly while someone staples the braces onto the back. Flip the pallet over and start painting! I sanded a lot, my pallets were extremely rough. I would paint let it dry. Sand, and paint again. Sometimes two or three times. Until I reached the point where the brush wouldn't pull up parts of the wood.

I paint the blue first, I measured out my square and filled it in.

After the blue I painted my white stripes. While I had white on my brush and plate, I used the stencils and painted my stars in the blue. I had two different sizes of star stencils. I used the bigger one and the small one. My mom did hers in just the small stars. My girlfriend Megan is going to do even smaller stars and a bigger wooden star for the center of her blue. The best thing about these projects is you can make them your own! Don't be afraid to get creative!

Then I finished with the red stripes.

Xo,
Morgan


Tip: Lots of companies just leave their pallets on the side of the road, those are free game people! Get some pallets and get to crafting!