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...:)