Old Glory Takes a New Twist

It’s been almost 2 years! 

This is my first post (with the exception of my daily Thought for the Day entries) in a very long time.   

I will save you a lengthy read and lots of emotional outpourings, but it has been a full 2 years, to say the least.  Right after my last post, we put our house on the market. In less than 12 months we moved, our daughter got married, I lost my mother and our son got married. 

While our lives have been quite busy, I have managed to stay sane, only by the grace of my sweet Lord and my faithful hubby.  I have dabbled with smaller projects along the way; which, for me, is truly necessary for my mental state. 

Given the commonality with my last recent post, I thought I’d show you the door decorations that I just finished.  They will carry us through July 4th.  Our new home has double front doors, so each time I make a new one, it’s always in duplicate.  It’s been a bit of a challenge, but one that I have been enjoying.  In an effort to hold costs down, I try to combine recyled materias with items that I already have on had.  I do not have the steps that I took for most of my door decs. but will try to post pics of some of them as the seasons change.

Our Whimsical Star-Spangled Stars~

I began by drawing out my star pattern on a piece of poster board

With a black crayon, I traced my star onto a sheet of medium weight wavy metal, which I found in the trash.  I found 4 sheets of this metal a few moths ago.  I figured they would come in handy for a project.

The tin snips that I had had short handles, which would have made long cuts a big struggle. I went to the local hardware store and picked up these big boys.  

After I cut out both  stars, I hit them with a coat of white spray paint.  This gave me a good “primer” and provided for my white stars and white stripes, allowing me to avoid having to use additional white paint.

Things start to take “shape”...

I penciled in the stars and stripes and began adding blue and red paint. 

As with every project, detailing is important. It often makes it “pop”.  I took a little white piant and created “stitches” around the outside of the big star.  Then I used a little white paint to create “shadows” around the little stars.

After my painting was complete, I sealed the entire surface with a clear satin polyurethane.

I used a nail to make a two holes, added some wire for my hanger and embellished with a raffia bow.