Thursday, May 20, 2010

Memorial Day Project


With Memorial Day right around the corner, the unoffical beginning of Summer, I decided to create a fun and easy (I mean super easy) painting project with a Goodwill find. A simple 15'' square piece of plywood with trim added, someone's abandoned project. Whoever donated this, thanks! It saved me some work cutting my own board and trim!




...and for .79 cents, definately worth it.

Here's what you need to get started:

Plywood or any scrap board, of your desired size

Gesso/primer

Star template (optional)

Acrylic paint, red white and blue and burnt umber

Small to medium artist brushes

Sandpaper







I liked the black trim and decided to keep it, but primed the rest of the piece. Two coats of gesso and it was ready to go. I used gesso for a couple of reasons: it prepares any surface for acrylic paint, and I had it on hand. Plus, it dries really fast. However, any primer will do.







Next, freehand a flag motif. Very simple to draw, and I used a stencil for the stars, you can freehand these as well.









Paint the stripes (Bright Red)






Paint around the stars (Aquamarine Blue)











Don't worry about painting perfectly straight stripes and stars, a handpainted look is what we're after. That's great for me! No pressure getting it perfect!


Paint in the white stripes and stars...





After your project is dry, you're ready to do some distressing!


For distressing, I used sandpaper, and sanded down the entire surface. I kinda went in a cross-hatching pattern vs. circular.



As a final step, I did an antiquing was over the whole piece. Antiquing wash, which is really just watered down burnt umber. Brush it on, and gently wipe it off. It leaves a subtle aging effect.

You are ready to celebrate Memorial Day Weekend! My vacation starts Memorial Day Weekend, so I'm really looking forward to it!






After my project was finished, I was inspired to do a little revamp on the china hutch!


My good friend gave these beautiful colbalt blue goblets to me, thanks Judy! {She gave me the milk glass plates pictured behind them too!} Aren't they beautiful?


I changed out my normal green apples for red...brought out some blue dessert plates...added a few stars (borrowed from Logan's room:)

What do you think? It's a pretty easy project, right?


You can do it!



I love the casual lean...:)






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41 comments:

  1. soooo cute! i love it- and what a bargain! i wish people would abandon their projects more often so we could just pick up where they left off (and having already done the hard part, might i add!). awesome idea!

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  2. You are amazing!!! Want to come to Charleston and decorate for me??? I spray painted my brass lamps and I love them!!! I found the Almond in Satin and it was fabulous. My husband is amazed and has bragged to everyone that I spray painted them! I will be posting them soon, but thank you so much for the inspiration!

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  3. Love it! Looks great!
    {Rebekah}

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  4. This is a wonderful project! I love the way you embellished all your beautiful white pieces in your hutch with red and blue. Very smart and creative.
    This little project has so much impact! I want to sing, God Bless America!
    Yvonne

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  5. Great idea!! I LOVE your hutch full of pretties!!

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  6. Thanks for sharing this tutorial Michelle! Your hutch is awesome, full of interesting pieces.

    A happy weekend to you my dear!

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  7. Ohhh Michelle, me again, just wanted to thank you for not having us go through the word verification process nor the waiting for approval thingy. It is so much easier to comment this way!

    Cheers!

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  8. Using red, white, and blue is something that has to be done carefully so it doesn't look tacky, and you definitely did it right! The whole hutch looks so great! And that flag is so cute! Great job!

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  9. OH HOW I LOVE THIS!!!! I want to make a tray like this for the 4th of July!! (& use it every chance I get all summer long!) thanks!!!!

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  10. Perfect! Your hutch looks wonderful. You've added just the right amount of red, white and blue. I typically never do any decorating at this time of year but you've motivated me to add a little something to my hutch!
    Have a wonderful weekend.
    Jane

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  11. Great project and a colorful addition to the hutch. Jane

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  12. I love the red white and blue display! It is wonderful! I would love to feature this on my blog if you are interested. Just let me know, (you can just reply to the comment if you are interested)

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  13. Wow! I love how you displayed your masterpiece. It's looks great with all the milk glass and blue goblets--perfect touch was the red apples. Very inspired!

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  14. I know I'm gonna come back to this again and again. Because you are the QUEEN of display! Your flag project turned out fantastic. And oh, would I love someone to gift me those blue goblets!
    Brenda

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  15. Remodelaholic, please, feature away! Thank you so much!

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  16. Really cute and I love your hutch! And all of your milk glass :)

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  17. Oh your hutch looks so great! I love the flag and the way you put everything together. It turned out wonderful!

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  18. I love your project and that hutch is beautiful!!! Have a wonderful vacation!!!

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  19. Love, love, love this project and your hutch is just beautiful. We have a lot of black furniture too..the colors just pop. You've inspired me to do a little decorating for Memorial weekend!
    Take care and thanks for stopping by my blog.
    ~Karen~

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  20. Being military, my decorating style has always been red,white, and blue...I absolutely love this..you give me the greatest ideas I can't wait to have a little time to do something with them!!

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  21. LOVE IT! and you have inspired me! even if we dont get out of the 50s today-we are putting up memorial day decor!

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  22. love it! thanks for stopping by my blog and your sweet comments on my headboard! :)

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  23. Love it! I also really like how you carried the red, white and blue look to your china cabinet. It looks wonderful.

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  24. I love the way you distressed this with crisscrossing the sandpaper. Its quite lovely! Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and leaving such a sweet comment on my bicycle makeover!

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  25. So sweet! And your instructions are awesome! I just love your little modified flag to fit piece!

    Thanks for linking up to SNS!
    FJ Donna
    http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/

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  26. Very nice! I love all things patriotic. Your display is just lovely. Found you via Donna's Funky Junk Saturday Night Special. Love your blog!

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  27. I think your whole hutch looks amazing-love red, white and blue!!!

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  28. Very cute - I love it when those GW find turn out like that. Your hutch looks fantastic.

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  29. What a great project...way to recycle!! Your hutch looks great with all the red, white, and blue. Very patriotic! :) ~ Jo

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  30. That's super cute! I know how easy it looks but I can't paint to save my life! I'm following you from Funky Junk Interiors - come on over to Mom. Undecided!

    Sam
    http://momundecided.blogspot.com/

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  31. Looks great, actually your whole cabinet looks great!

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  32. Like others, I found you through the article on Etsy and I'm so glad I did. Love this cute project, but looking back through your posts, I fell in love with all the coastal decor! What can I say that hasn't been said already? Simply fabulous.

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  33. Wonderful post, great creative decor!! Thanks for sharing.

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  34. I'd forgotten that Memorial Day was in one week! Thanks for inspiring me to change up my cupboard. It's actually almost there, just not quite.

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  35. Love love love this!!

    And I have that exact white plate on your shelf, with the blue glass in front of it.

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  36. That is wonderful! And something that's sooo easy. Totally might copy this for 4th of July! :)

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  37. Love this!!! My husband just deployed to Iraq, so things like this are close to my heart! I definitely want to make one soon! Thanks for the idea!

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  38. I have nothing patriotic to display but I have plywood. Thanks for this idea that my kids will be helping on this week.

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  39. The flag is awesome and the whole hutch display is gorgeous!!

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  40. Great project! I love the flag with that gorgeous hutch with all of the red white and blue!

    XOXO
    Jen

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Thank You for taking the time to comment! Because of the insane amount of spam comments, I had to stop anonymous comments-sorry for the inconvenience.
Michelle