Part 3- Rag Tie Wreath- 3 Quick Patriotic Handcrafts

My front door has been un-decorated for quite some time now... its been begging for a summer wreath.  The door was screaming "Give me some Red, White, and Blue!".

With SOOOOO many adorable patriotic wreath ideas on Pinterest it was hard to choose which direction to go with my wreath.  However, I've been having a lot of fun with "rag tie" projects lately, such as my Rag-Tie Bunting Banner and other custom orders I've had in my Etsy Shop lately, I decided it would be fun to try a rag tie wreath- in similar fashion as a tutu wreath.

My mom was over visiting from her Lavender Farm in Sequim, WA- so we got to make these together- and she had one to take home too.

We started off by cutting strips of fabric (2 inches wide and about 9 inches long.)

We cut Red, Blue and Burlap.  Then we cut the middle of the shrink plastic out of our straw wreaths my mom had for likely 20+ years and never did anything with.

Then we simply just started tying knots! 

 Mine had about 5 red strips in each red section, 2 burlap strips and a big section of blue.

And this is what it looked like after it was fully tied.  It needed something more- so I added some left over stars from my Starry Banner Handcraft.  And it turned out GREAT!

This concludes my 3 part blog series of 3 Quick Patriotic Handcrafts.  If you missed part 1 or 2 you can find them here:

• 3 Quick Patriotic Handcrafts- part1- Starry Banner
• Part 2- God Bless America Sign- 3 Quick Patriotic Handcrafts

I hope you'll take a few minutes and add some Patriotic Flare to your home for the coming holidays.  

Did you blog about a quick handcraft I can link up here?  Please leave me a comment!

Part 2- God Bless America Sign- 3 Quick Patriotic Handcrafts

My mantel decor is almost never complete with out a sign of some kind...and this time I didn't have one already made that would suffice.

The hubby and I were in the garage working on my Shutterfly and Looksi Creative Brand Collaboration Challenge and I spotted a VERY OLD piece of scrap wood that would make a beautiful sign.  I picked the piece off of a garage built in the early 1900's in downtown Renton- it was a piece of molding around a window.  The gracious owners also let me purchase the doors off the garage- they were original barn style garage doors- beautiful- and still in my garage awaiting the perfect home (against the will of my LOVING husband).

I cut the beautiful board into 3 equal lengths and used a scrap 1x2 to secure them together.  We hadn't yet replaced our finish-nailer that was stolen during our break-in so I had to use screws, a bit overkill- but oh well!

Because this wood is SOOOO old, I took extra precautions when sanding its rough edges after I cut the boards.  I was worried about the paint- so I wore a mask while sanding.  I sanded more than I typically would, because I used another one of these boards for one of my You Light Up My Life Lamps and I struggled to get the vinyl to stick on that project.  I was hoping some extra sanding would take care of this issue.

With it all sanded up, and secure together I took it inside and applied some vinyl!

I left the bottom pannel empty because I wanted to do some embellishing.  I splurged, with a gift certificate my lovely sister gave me for my birthday last year, on some burlap ribbon.  This is the look I wanted since I knew I would be using burlap in my wreath (part 3 of my patriotic tutorials) and its always nice to tie things together.  

So, I tied a simple knot with some burlap- decided it needed some color and added in some bright blue rick rack.  

Finished it off by hot gluing some small white stars left over from my Starry Banner and a simple  button heart.  

And THAT'S ALL!  Simple, quick and easy!

Our final and part 3 to our series will be a Patriotic Wreath- I hope to get it posted tomorrow- but we have a new baby to welcome to our family! I am determined to go see Madisyn's new baby cousin, Arabella, at the hospital tomorrow night- so you might see our Patriotic Wreath post on Thursday!  Can't wait to share.

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Stone Gable

3 Quick Patriotic Handcrafts- part1- Starry Banner

For my summer Mantel I wanted to create a Patriotic theme that could last from Memorial day to Labor day with the highlight of Independence Day, of course.

Part 1- Starry Banner

I knew I wanted a banner or garland of some sort- and had pinned a few different ideas. After creating the Jelly Bean Banners, I decided a quick and easy way to bring some RED, WHITE, and BLUE would be to use the same technique, but with star shapes.
I used my Silhouette to cut out 3 different sized star shapes in 3 different colors.  White was 1.5", Blue was 2" and Red was 3".  I sewed them on to wax paper leaving space between each star.
 

After they were sewn, I carefully peeled off the wax paper revealing just the thread and the stars!  I had enough stars to create two 4' garlands and I LOVE them both on my mantel!  I even had enough little white stars left to add them into my two other Patriotic Handcrafts to tie everything together!

I can't wait to share another tomorrow... stay tuned!