Let Freedom Ring...

So I came up with this while checking out some other blogs that had a few versions of this craft.  I, again, take all the info in and then I give it my own little twist, and call it my own!  Now who doesn't like a little Americana decor in their home around this time of year?  I know I do!  What's even better is when you can say that you yourself made it (with a little help from someone who knows how to use those hand saw things).  Once my father cut the wood for me, it took me about 30 minutes to finish all 4 of these.....

I remembered that we had a pallet hanging out in the backyard by the fire pit and decided to cut it up.  Alright well I didn't cut it up but I told my dad how I wanted it done. It's gotta count for something!!  He cut the 4 boards off the pallet and then took those boards and cut them in half horizontally.

I took 4 pieces and lined them up the way I liked, they don't have to be perfect, that's the best part!  Once I liked the pieces I put together I flipped them over.  So the wrong side was facing up.  I took a 2 thin pieces of wood that I found lying around and lied it vertically across the 4 boards and used the nail gun or staple gun to shoot a staple through the piece of thin wood and each pallet board.

Then I looked for red, blue, and white paint and came up with these...

They are just plain acrylic paints.  I painted a square with the blue in the upper left corner and then used the red and white for stripes, obviously!   My painting job was not perfect I just dragged my brush along the boards, and the boards are not smooth so it gives it that old look.   I put a couple dots of white on the blue square for the stars.  I may have done something different for the stars, but I couldn 't think of anything more creative at the time.  I let that dry and then used the MinWax stain in Jacobean along with an old dish washing sponge and dabbed it in the stain and ran it along the boards to make it look a little more distressed, cause the colors were a little bright.

I love it!  So one of these is gonna go on my front door and I think I might give one to the host of one 4th of July parties I'm going to this weekend.   Oh so I haven't put anything to hang it by yet.  My thoughts are, just a hook on the back.  Or  a wire to go from one side to the other and kinda make it twisty and curly.  Haven't thought about it yet.  I'm gonna head to the Home Depot tonight to see if I can find a flat polyeurathane to protect it a little.  I'll see what the depot professionals say about it.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!!