Pallet Flag

So I've been working on making our computer room/ craft room very patriotic in honor of my husband's service in the United States Marine Corps.  So I really wanted to buy a large framed flag to use as my center piece. Have you priced those flags or even framed prints??? They are easily over $150, which is way out of my budget. So then I moved onto Etsy to look into pallet flags and again for the size I wanted they were around $100, but while browsing Etsy I decided I don't need to buy a flag, I'm gonna go crazy and make my own! So I ran across the road where they are building a house grabbed a pallet and some fence posts and went to work! 

What you need for this project: 1 pallet or wood that is about 4 inches wide and not very thick. Nails, saw, sander or sand paper, measuring tape. to decorate you need tape, red, white and blue paint several paint brushes.   

1.Wood- Most pallets are not placed this close together so I pulled mine apart and re-nailed it. The length of the pallet boards were 32 inches so I only had to cut a few of my other wood pieces so they would match up. My flag measured 32 x 20 inches which is not a real flag measurement but it's close. You can play with these numbers depending on how big or small you want your flag to be. 

2. Measuring - You need to find out how big your stripes will be, and how big the blue area of the flag is. Stripes aren't too difficult. Whatever the height of your flag is divide that by 13. Try to be as exact as possible! This is what mine looked like. My flag was 20.25 inches high divided by 13 =1.55 inches or on a tape measure that would be 1 9/16 inches. Get out a calculator  or enlist your boyfriends, husbands, guy next door or dad's help. I'm not ashamed I asked! 

The height of the blue was simple to measure, it is exactly 7 stripes. In my case 10.85 inches. For the width I went to a flag dimension website and it confused the crap out of my and I finally decided I would add an inch on to the height and round it to 12 inches so my stars would be evenly spaced. Here is the website if you feel like having a headache. ;)  http://www.usflag.org/flagspecs.html

3. Taping - Using masking take or painters tape use your measurements to tape out the blue section and your red stripes only! Remember don't round on your stripe measurements or your bottom stripe will be bigger than the rest! Taping takes patience but it's worth it to take your time. Push down on all your edges so the paint doesn't bleed. 

4. Painting- Makes sure you cover your wood generously! And be patient with your paint drying. You don't want to pull the tape off too early! 

This is what your flag will look like after adding your blue and red paint! 

I waited a whole day before I took the tape on the red off then re-taped for my white stripes. Make sure when you put your tape on your board for the white stripes that your overlap the red by just a tiny bit. This makes nice crisp lines!  I also waited a day for the white paint. 

5- Stars - My stars are 1 inch in size. While I was waiting for my paint to dry I used my trusty Cricut to cut out a stencil so my stars would be evenly spaced. I loved using the cricut for this purpose but 1 inch is the smallest my stars could be and therefore if you count on my flag there are only 39. I needed two more rows, but this is a craft project and I settled for cute even stars and decided to pretend we kicked a few states out of the country. haha  You can buy a star stencil at your local craft store or be creative with making your stars. 

Here are the stars finished. I used a very fine paint brush to touch up any paint that went outside the stencil. 

 At this point you can leave you flag as is but I took some sandpaper and ruffed up the edges and paint to make it look more rustic. To hang it on the wall I placed two screws on the braces 6-7 inches from the top and used a screw driver to put these in the board. Then I attached a wire to the screws and mounted it to the wall.

Finished!