USA Wreath

Yesterday, I posted on my easy peasy bunting banner that is adding a little 4th of July spirit to our house. Well today, I have my other holiday related project to show you!

This is a minor variation to the burlap wreath I posted about last week. Instead of making a whole new wreath, I just switched out the decoration on it!

I picked up wooden U, S, & A letters at Walmart for around $1 a piece. 

I wanted them to be a little more interesting than just solid colors, so I decided to paint the U blue with white stars & the other 2 in red & white stripes to emulate Old Glory. I started out by painting each with a base coat using acrylic craft paint {blue for the U & white for the S & A}. The white took a few layers to get a nice even coat. Don't forget the edges either!

On the U, I free handed small stars with some bright white paint & a small, precise brush. If you aren't comfortable doing that, then I suggest using a stencil or even stickers. The stripes were a lot easier. I took a thin roll of masking tape & taped off stripes on the last 2 letters, then went over the non taped off areas with red paint. It took 2 layers to get intense red that I was wanting. 

After everything was dry, I hot glued pieces of floral wire to the backs of each letter. 

The last step was to attach them to my wreath! This project only cost me about $4 & just about an hour to make. Now we are truly ready to celebrate Independence Day!!

No Sew 4th of July Bunting

I love holidays. And decorating. And now that I have my own house, I'm super excited about holiday decorating!! I feel like we have a lot of American pride around here {especially since hubs is in the Army}, so I wanted to give July 4th some special decorations of its own!

Being newly married, the only holiday decor we've managed to accumulate are a few things for Christmas. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that may or may not make the next move with us. Thus, this cheap and chic bunting banner was born!

I picked up red, white, & blue fat quarters from the sewing/quilting aisle at Walmart for 97 cents a piece.



Using my rotary cutter, I cut each piece of fabric into 3 {mostly} equal strips lengthwise.



Then, I cut each strip into 4 equal squares.



 What's really great about the rotary cutter & cutting board is that you can cut multiple layers at once, making the whole job super quick. 

I didn't want triangular bunting, so I cut an inverted V out of one side of each square with my pinking shears. Using the pinking shears again, I trimmed a little off the other sides of my flags so they wouldn't fray.



Then comes the most time consuming part…. ironing each one. I ironed the creases out of each & then folded a small section of the top down & pressed it. That is where you will attach your string.

I used white craft string that we already had. You could use anything though…. twine, ribbon... you get the picture. I put a thin like of hot glue along the top crease I made, quickly placed my string in it & folded the small flap down.



I kept the string still attached to the spool & just unwound it as I needed. You could use any placement with your flags, but I wanted mine almost touching. After what seemed like a bajillion years, I was finally done & ready to hang it!

The awning of our porch is pretty high up, & we don't have a ladder, so I ended up on Micah's shoulders… Too bad there wasn't someone else with us to get a picture of that huh?! There were already staples where I was planning on hanging it, so used my staple gun & {carefully} tacked it up every so often. I wanted my banner to swag quite a bit, but once again the options are pretty limitless on how you want to hang it. 

I was super pleased with the end result! It is by no means perfect {nor is my hanging job}, but I love the bit of color & whimsy it adds to our front porch. And it was only $3 to make, so you can't beat that!