Old Glory - Vintage Style

The day before the fourth of July, Jacob and I were digging around in the garage trying to find our flag when I spied his big box of wood scraps. 

I inadvertently abandoned our flag hunt and started pulling scraps of wood out of the box. 

I get distracted so easily!

I started piecing them together like a puzzle on the floor. 

I was inspired by THIS post on Knock-Off Wood.

Jacob knew I had my creative juices flowing, so he just rolled his eyes at me and went about his flag search. 

I know he was thinking I don't want her giving me another project! 

But I knew this would be a project I could conquer myself.

After I pieced all of the scraps together to form a big rectangle resembling a flag, I asked Jacob to show me how to use his compound miter saw. 

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the process - I was too excited to get the project completed!

After a quick saw lesson, I cut all of my boards to fit perfectly together.  

Then I sanded and painted all of the boards. This process took me a full day because I had to wait for all of the paint to dry before I could sand the boards again to give it a distressed look. 

Note: I painted all of the boards BEFORE attaching them.

To paint the 13 stars in a perfect circle, I printed off a picture from the internet and traced it onto the boards. Then I used a white paint pen to color them in.

Jacob had to help me cut a big piece of plywood on the table saw for the backing. 

Then I used wood glue and little brad nails to attach the boards to the plywood.

Originally I had planned for this to decorate our front porch for Independence Day, but I liked how it turned out so much, that it now hangs in one of our hallways.

I smile every time I walk by it, knowing that I built it all by myself!

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